Today is the Saturday of the Two Rivers Spring Star Party and I'm posting this blog when I should be enjoying dark skies. The sad fact is that the entire run of the party has been filled with of clouds and rain and I've bailed out rather than sit in a tent for the remainder of the party.
AMENDED: The IR Satellite loop suggests that Saturday night is starting out clear. It won't stay that way, though; by midnight or 1 A.M. clouds will cover from the west. It still wouldn't have been a suitable night for my imaging.
A tale of woe: My last several parties are the Iowa Star Party (two out of two nights unsuitable), The Northern Nights Star Fest (three out of four cloudy/rainy nights) and now the TRSSP (three out of three cloudy/rainy nights). That gives me a whopping one night out of nine that I could see the stars.
The next star party is the Nebraska Star Party in July. Maybe I should ask them to pay me to stay away.
The T2i arrived sooner than expected! It's amazingly clean--it looks almost brand new, and more importantly looks to be 100% functional. I've communicated with Gary Honis about the modification, and he's got a slot open at the end of May. Maybe I'll have the modded camera back in time for the NSP? It could ride my CG-5 mount and do wide-field imaging while I'm using the CCD for other objects.
Showing posts with label Two Rivers Spring Star Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Two Rivers Spring Star Party. Show all posts
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Two Rivers Spring Star Party: Image Planning
Sometimes planning seems like an exercise in futility, but it can be helpful when preparing to image far from home.
My first 2015 star party trip is to the Two Rivers Spring Star Party at the May new moon. This is located a little north of Barry, IL on a private farm. There's no power except for recharging batteries, so I'll be running from my big batteries all three nights.
What's to image? There's a cluster of five ALBN objects to go after. Fitting neatly into a 135mm field are LBNs 8, 10, 11, 19, and 1122. All are emission nebulae. 1122 is a brightness four, 11 a five, and the rest sixes. This is an all-night group, complete with a meridian flip around 2 A.M. if the four hours from 10 to 2 aren't adequate. This should make a nice LRGB image!
Assuming there's a second clear night, I'll go after something not possible from Minnesota. LBN 1091 transits at 12:49 at an
altitude of almost 16 degrees. This has an LBN brightness of 6, so it's
going to be difficult if not impossible.
The rest of the ALBN objects I have to do are better imaged later in the summer. If there's a third night of clear sky I'll do a pretty picture. Maybe an LRGB of the Antares area at 135mm. What're the chances of that?
My first 2015 star party trip is to the Two Rivers Spring Star Party at the May new moon. This is located a little north of Barry, IL on a private farm. There's no power except for recharging batteries, so I'll be running from my big batteries all three nights.
What's to image? There's a cluster of five ALBN objects to go after. Fitting neatly into a 135mm field are LBNs 8, 10, 11, 19, and 1122. All are emission nebulae. 1122 is a brightness four, 11 a five, and the rest sixes. This is an all-night group, complete with a meridian flip around 2 A.M. if the four hours from 10 to 2 aren't adequate. This should make a nice LRGB image!
 |
| LBN 10 is located at the red "X" NE of LBN 8and is about the same size as LBN 1122 |
The rest of the ALBN objects I have to do are better imaged later in the summer. If there's a third night of clear sky I'll do a pretty picture. Maybe an LRGB of the Antares area at 135mm. What're the chances of that?
Thursday, April 16, 2015
M51
I changed my imaging plans (as I often do) and imaged M5 instead of M82. I'd have more time on target that way. As it ended up, I had 105m unbinned L, and 40m binned 2x2 of R, G, and B. These were about the longest I wanted to go with the C925 operating at f/10.
I'm still having issues with the image--the sensor plane is not perpendicular to the optical axis. Possibly this happened at the coupling, or potentially much worse is an issue with the secondary mirror. Coma-like stars aside the big issue was the sky brightness. Once again the limiting magnitude was awful, something like 3.5.
Another ongoing issue is the poor showing of blue and the color balance in general.(Note the pink star at left and the blue-green one to the right.) I'm going to be a bit of a purist and suggest that many imagers oversaturate M51 to make the arms a vibrant blue. Something between what they do and what you see above would be more to my taste.
This weekend I hope to return to ALBN imaging, but as the day has progressed the weather forecast has deteriorated. If it clouds out I'll have a chance to clean my optics and work on my binocular holder. Almost time to send in my registration for the Two Rivers Spring Star Party!
I'm still having issues with the image--the sensor plane is not perpendicular to the optical axis. Possibly this happened at the coupling, or potentially much worse is an issue with the secondary mirror. Coma-like stars aside the big issue was the sky brightness. Once again the limiting magnitude was awful, something like 3.5.
Another ongoing issue is the poor showing of blue and the color balance in general.(Note the pink star at left and the blue-green one to the right.) I'm going to be a bit of a purist and suggest that many imagers oversaturate M51 to make the arms a vibrant blue. Something between what they do and what you see above would be more to my taste.
This weekend I hope to return to ALBN imaging, but as the day has progressed the weather forecast has deteriorated. If it clouds out I'll have a chance to clean my optics and work on my binocular holder. Almost time to send in my registration for the Two Rivers Spring Star Party!
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