Observation Log - February 13, 2001 - Tinton Falls, NJ

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[NOTE: The evening started okay (temp went down to 26 at end of session) but a quick dew turned to frost and ended the night just after 9:00. I knew the night was going to be ended by incoming weather, but I wanted to test the camera. I just got the MX516 back from AVA. They cleaned off some residue that was on the CCD cover glass from a bad moisture problem. I also tried a new T-adapter that I just received. So the setup on the 12" Meade LX200 was the Crayford focuser/f3.3 reducer/T adapter/MX516 camera. Tonight the images were all taken WITHOUT the IR blocking filter. I did a set of twilight flats before starting the session, and darks at the end. -GW]

NGC1554, Hind's Variable Nebula in Taurus, diameter 30". The frames were shot between 6:39 and 7:18 p.m. the evening of February 13. This composite was made from 30 exposures for a total integration time of 30 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited and finally an unsharp mask. Then I moved the image into MaxIm, and did pixel math (-100) and the image was finished with a contrast stretch.

NGC2342, a galaxy in Gemini, magnitude 12.6, dimensions 1'.4 x 1'.3, surface brightness is 13.6 mag/sq arcmin. The little galaxy next door is NGC2341, mag 13.2, 54" x 54", s.b. 13.7. The frames were shot between 7:43 and 9:04 p.m. the evening of the 13th. This composite was made from 45 exposures for a total integration time of 45 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. I also added an unsharp mask step before moving the image into MaxIm. Once there, I applied a Digital Development filter (kernel, low-pass), and the image was finished with a contrast stretch.