Observation Log - July 15, 2001

Observation Log - July 15, 2001 - Tinton Falls, NJ

[Tonight was a nice session, with temps in the 50's.Configuration was identical to 7/12 and 7/14 (left imager setup): Crayford, f/3.3 reducer, 1.25" vis back, and the MX516. Took calibration frames during evening twilight, and more darks during morning twilight. Had the moon rise after 1:00, but no dew. Had heater on low anyway, just in case. -GW]

This is Comet C/2001 A2 (Linear), photographed in Pegasus. This image was made from 20 50-second exposures (1000 seconds or 16 2/3 minutes total integration time) taken between 3:53 and 4:13 a.m. the morning of July 15, 2001. The images were calibrated using MaxIm, aligned and composited (aligned on the comet nucleus), and a Digital Development filter (Kernel, low-pass, more) was applied. The resulting image was finished with a contrast enhancement. The comet was moving very fast, toward the upper right. And here is an MPG movie that shows the motion of C/2001 A2 (Linear) across the stellar background. This movie compresses about 44 minutes of motion into a short little animation. To create this animation, I took 43 individual FITs images, and processed each for calibration, resizing, a Digital Development filter (Kernel, low- pass) and a contrast stretch. Each frame was then saved as a JPG file, and the resulting images were combined into an MPG movie using Image Explorer Pro.

Here is NGC6995, a Supernova remnant in Cygnus. This is a three-panel mosaic. Each panel was made from 47 1-minute exposures (47 minutes total integration time) taken between 12:01 and 3:36 a.m. the morning of July 15, 2001. The images were calibrated using MaxIm, aligned and composited, then the background was flattened, and the background level was equalized for the three images. Then they were assembled into the mosaic, and a Digital Development filter (Kernel, low-pass) was applied. The resulting image was finished with a contrast enhancement.