Panels and Pieces

September update with shouting headlines:

GUIDING WOES SOLVED!

After an August imaging session that featured repeated guide camera disconnects I decided that it was time to move on from my QHY5L-II. I'd read somewhere (CloudyNights?) this was one of its traits. Disconnects have been a repeating problem during its service to me. There have been nights I've retreated to my good old StarShoot Autoguider.

I had tried to work with the camera. It seemed as though the issue was insufficient power, so I used shorter and shorter USB cables, then a powered USB 3 port and a very short cable. The disconnects became less frequent but imaging time was still being lost. 

Something had to be done; I can tell you that it is not fun fussing around at 2 or 3 AM trying to get things going again after a disconnect. So I went all-ASI and purchased an ASI 120MM Mini (mono). My only qualms about the Mini were possible software collisions with my imaging camera, an ASI 2600M, and if it would be compatible with the QHY mini guide scope.

The only camera confusion was mine when I gave PHD2 the wrong camera to use. The ASI120 seems to work well with the QHY mini guide scope, although it may need a little more backfocus. And during an evening of imaging not a single disconnect, so for the moment I'm declaring problem solved. I may swap out the QHY guide scope for my old Orion 50mm guide scope, just for the added aperture.

MOSAIC DATA COMPLETED!

My ~57 megapixel mosaic of the Veil nebula has taken long enough, hasn't it? Panel 1 (of 6) was imaged June 19. Panels 2, 3, and 4 were imaged August 25 and September 11. The final panels, 5 and 6, were imaged September 17. The long summer delay was thanks to smoke, air quality, heat, clouds, and my availability. It's been a summer. 

I don't yet know how good the light frames are of these but they will have to do. Each panel is made of approximately 48 minutes of luminance, and 24 minutes of each color channel. This means it's not particularly deep, but this is the Veil Nebula and hardly the dimmest object in the sky. I could collect more data, but I'd like to move on to other targets.

DISASTER AVERTED, TWICE!

This is how my night imaging the last two panels started....

Disaster #1: The dew strap for my FSQ's objective had a short that I first noticed as a wild variation in the Pegasus Ultimate PowerBox current. It was hopping between a low, reasonable value and 4+ amps as it tried to control the situation. Its control probably prevented the Powerbox's demise, a meltdown of the strap's cable (it did become too hot to touch) and perhaps even damage to my AC to DC power supply. 

Disaster #2: Without the dew strap imaging could last only until I saw dew beginning on the imaging scope's objective. I hoped I'd be able to get at least one of the two remaining Veil panels done but it seemed doubtful. There was no breeze to keep the ambient temperature from cooling rapidly and because I was imaging almost straight up the objective would probably dew quickly.

Maybe it was convection from the power supply and the cooled imaging camera or just plain good luck but it somehow stayed dew-free for the time required to get both panels imaged.

NEBRASKA STAR PARTY 2023: SMOKE AND CLOUDS!

Okay, I didn't attend. I'll sit in judgement of it anyway, partly to justify my staying home but mainly to question the wisdom of traveling to distant places for imaging. Which is not to say I won't go next year, if someone could do something about all that smoke. As for the heat--it's not NSP without a day or two of 100-degree temperatures or hotter, is it?

Here are the day-by-day NSP 2023 imaging conditions as gleaned from the weather service and air pollution monitors.

Saturday Night: red category air quality and terrible transparency. I'm of an age that puts me in the group the air quality people always caution about being active when the air is this bad. We had a couple of days this summer where I live that were as bad as this and the surface smoke was so thick that it looked like a thin fog. Setting up camp was not something I'd have wanted to do in red air. And of course, with the smoke the greatly reduced transparency for imaging negates the point of going someplace dark like NSP.

Sunday Night: Saturday night all over again.

Monday Night (First "official" night of NSP): Clouds and a thunderstorm.

Tuesday Night: Probably clear from Midnight to 2 AM, then rain around 3 AM. Very humid (dew point temperature near 70 degrees) so super uncomfortable sleeping in a tent on the observing field.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy all night. 

Thursday Night (my last night at NSP had I attended): Partial clearing around 12:30 AM, then partly cloudy until 3.

So maybe a couple of hours of imaging Tuesday night and again Thursday night; for maybe a total of four hours of smoky sky imaging across six nights. Add to that unhealthy air quality on two nights.

Some years NSP can be a fun vacation in the wilds of Nebraska with very dark sky. Some years not so much. If the wildfire smoke becomes an annual problem NSP will difficult to justify as a travel destination.

On the other hand, with summer smoke affecting most of the region, where else would you go?

That's all for this dramatic update!