M13 by the skin of my teeth

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Pete
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Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:03 pm

M13 by the skin of my teeth

Unread post by Pete »

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

There’s a pretty decent sky tonight. Reasonable transparency, good seeing and the moon is down. Out at 20:00. Planning on imaging M94 for the first time.

The galaxy has a very bright core so in setup exposure changed from 3m to 1m.

Tonight’s log could be titled A Night of Equipment malfunction as things didn’t go well. The new lower shutter fell off 3 times, each time bumping the scope out of alignment. And after the third bump the PHD2 stars were wonky. Checked the focus of the 80mm guide scope and it was OK however. By now its 22:15 and I’ve lost M94 alignment once again. And the galaxy is setting in the SW. And I can’t be out too late. Gonna give it one more quick try anyway.

74 X 1 min, 2X binning, 120 gain, 5 sec guiding. 14” @ f6.3 with LP filter
M94 s.jpg
M94 s.jpg (111.45 KiB) Viewed 416 times
It’s a small object and the outer core is quite dim. But I was hoping for more frames to do it justice.

The globulars are well positioned now, and it’d be cool to see if I can improve on the M13 captured 10 July 21. Didn’t have 15 second darks so settled for 30 second exposures. About 10 minutes into the run the old guide computer went blue screen. So that put an end to tonight's imaging.

M13 s.jpg
M13 s.jpg (1.42 MiB) Viewed 416 times
M13
20 X 30 sec, 2X binning, 120 gain, -10C cooling, 5 sec guiding
14” at f/6.3 with ASI2600MC-P and Optolong LP-P filter

10 minutes is pretty darned short but this image processed better than the 240X 30 sec image run last year. Roger noted, one doesn’t need long exposures for Globs. And only 10 minutes wasn’t that bad. It’s a keeper by Pete quality standards.

Conclusions and lessons learned:

One more failure tonight – the observatory CD player went kaput.

My M94 attempt was problematic anyway and M13 quality may be possibly be attributed to fewer frames rather than more.

The addition of the lower shutter has solved the long running light impingement problem. Will further modify it to prevent accidental shifting and falling when the dome's rotated.

Subsequently rebooted the old desktop and it opened and ran fine. It drops out at least annually.
Pete P.
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menardre
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Re: M13 by the skin of my teeth

Unread post by menardre »

Pete

Nice job with M13 ... especially with 10 minutes of imaging.

Some nights things go like clockwork, other nights everything seems to work against you. I like your summary. Rather than throw yours hands up when there is a problem, you just push on and determine how to make improvements. Must be the engineer in you.

The problem with astrophotography is that not everything can be fixed in the daylight.

Roger
Roger M.
Celestron CPC1100 EDGE, Stellarvue 130T refractor dual mounted on iOptron CEM120 on permanent pier mounted in Observatory. Imaging camera ZWO ASI2600 OSC, guide camera Lodestar or ZWO ASI290MM.
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Apollo XX
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Re: M13 by the skin of my teeth

Unread post by Apollo XX »

Holy crap!!! The 'propeller' is insanely evident in your image of M13! You're right, it's a keeper.

Mike M.
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
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