Observation Log - May 10, 2001

Observation Log - May 10, 2001 - Tinton Falls, NJ

[A very interesting night. Last night (evening of 05/08/01) was a nearly- full moon, so I put an eyepiece on the 12" LX200 and perfected the polar alignment. The 'scope is sitting ona stone ring, but has shifted slightly from the original location, and one or two of the bricks have moved slightly on the bed. After a couple of hours of work, the 12" will now hold a southern star on the crosshairs for at least 30 minutes. I also cleared the PEC traning before the alignment, then did two fresh trainings, avered together. Looks like a VERY good alignment.

Tonight I started by mounting the f/6.3 focal reducer instead of the f/3.3. I wanted to take photos of some planetary nebulae, so the longer focal length should help. Here was the setup for this session: Crayford focuser/f6.3 reducer/1.25" visual back/MX516 camera. I did not use either an IR blocker, or the deep sky filter. Took flats in evening twilight, even though the telescope had not been focused. Also, I started taking flats well before the camera had cooled down. Temperature chilled below the dew point around midnight, so I used a hair dryer to remove the dew, and put the Kendrick heater online. That worked until near morning, when the battery pack ran down. -GW]

NGC3423, a spiral galaxy in Sextans, magnitude 11.1, dimensions 4'.3 x 3'.6, surface brightness is 12.5 mag/sq arcmin, distance is 37 million light years. The frames were shot between 9:18 and 10:26 p.m. the evening of May 9th. This composite was made from 33 exposures for a total integration time of 33 minutes. All images were processed in MaxIm with darks, flats and bias frames, then aligned and composited. The only enhancement I used was a contrast stretch.

M51, the core of the big spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. This was basically a test shot to check the resolution of this system working at f/6.3. The frames were shot between 11:17 and 12:32 a.m. the morning of May 10th. This composite was made from 42 exposures for a total integration time of 42 minutes. (I used the best 42 from a set of 61.) All images were processed in MaxIm with darks, flats and bias frames, then aligned and composited. Then I used a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild), and an unsharp mask (in AstroArt), and finally a contrast stretch back in MaxIm.

M57, a planetary nebula in Lyra. This was aother test shot to check the resolution of this system working at f/6.3. The frames were shot between 12:45 and 1:44 a.m. the morning of May 10th. This composite was made from 34 exposures for a total integration time of 34 minutes. (I used the best 34 from a set of 48.) All images were processed in MaxIm with darks, flats and bias frames, then aligned and composited. I rasampled the image to double the scale, then I switched to AIP for a deconvolution. Back in MaxIm I applied a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, hard) and finally a contrast stretch.

NGC6210, a planetary nebula in Hercules, magnitude 9.7, dimensions 20" x 13", and a distance of 3,600 light years. This object has an expansion velocity of 20 km/sec, and the central star is magnitude 12.5. Here is another version of the same image enhanced to show detailed in the overexposed core. The frames were shot between 1:50 and 3:03 a.m. the morning of May 10th. This composite was made from 53 exposures for a total integration time of 53 minutes. All images were processed in MaxIm with darks, flats and bias frames, then aligned and composited. I rasampled the image to double the scale. I applied a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, medium) and finally a contrast stretch.