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

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Tried the newly upgraded MaxIm/CCD for the first time tonight to control the MX516 camera, using the USB port. Seemed to work okay, with downloads being much faster. But something seems to be a little strange with the camera. The images are quite grainy, and they seem a little too contrasty. Temperature at dawn was 30F, with quite a bit of frost. I used the Kendrick heater and a dew shield and didn't have any problems. Configuration on the 12" LX200 was: Crayford/F3.3 reducer/T-adapter/MX516 camera, upside-down and no filter. Took plenty of darks and flats at dawn. I had MANY lockups on the computer with MaxIm, all of the "this program has performed an illegal operation..." nature.

Tonight's first image is NGC1211, a galaxy in Cetus, magnitude 12.3, dimensions 2'.1 x 1'.9, surface brightness is 12.9 mags/sq arcmin. This image was made from 52 one-minute exposures taken between 10:53 and 11:56 pm, the evening of December 9, 2001. The image was rotated 180 degrees to keep north up, then processed with a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild), and finished with a contrast stretch. Here is another version of the same image resampled to double the image scale.

Next up is NGC2493, a galaxy in Lynx, magnitude 12.0, dimensions 1'.9 x 1'.9, surface brightness is 12.8 mags/sq arcmin. This image was made from 46 one-minute exposures taken between 12:02 and 2:13 am, the morning of December 10, 2001. The image was rotated 180 degrees to keep north up, then processed with a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, medium), and finished with a contrast stretch. Here is another version of the same image resampled to double the image scale.

This is NGC2365, a galaxy in Gemini, magnitude 12.4, dimensions 2'.4 x 1'.3, surface brightness is 15.0 mags/sq arcmin. This image was made from 20 one-minute exposures taken between 3:53 and 4:15 am, the morning of December 10, 2001. The image was rotated 180 degrees to keep north up, then processed with a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, medium), and finished with a contrast stretch. Here is another version of the same image resampled to double the image scale.

Finally I did M99, a galaxy in Coma Berenices, magnitude 9.9, dimensions 5'.3 x 4'.6, surface brightness is 12.3 mags/sq arcmin. This image was made from 75 one-minute exposures taken between 4:26 and 6:13 am, the evening of December 11, 2001. The image was rotated 180 degrees, then processed with a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, medium), and finished with a contrast stretch. Here is another version of the same image resampled to double the image scale.