Haven’t been out since April 24th. Once again, there’s a full moon tonight. But the sky is clear. Going to take a shot at the Virgo Cluster.
Doing an initial stretch in ImagesPlus… Well, this really sucks.
- Virgo light problem.jpg (1.5 MiB) Viewed 10571 times
PhotoShop to the rescue.
- Virgo uncropped s.jpg (1.25 MiB) Viewed 10571 times
22 May 2024 21:11 – 23:32 EDT
46 X 3 min, unbinned, -5°C cooling, 200 gain, 2 Hz guide rate
Explore Scientific 102mm refractor with ASI2600MC-P camera LP filter not used
Observations and lessons learned:
After all of my years of imaging I still can’t nail down this light problem. But note that it usually happens with a bright moon.
Experienced a very heavy dew fall. While a dome reduces the radiation cooling associated with dew formation, this was really damp and I’m surprised that the objective of the Explore Scientific refractor apparently remained clear.
I’ve imaged the Chain before but can’t locate the image for comparison. Do recall that previously I didn’t capture the last galaxy in the “tail”.
Guiding was spot on all night. And with the ASCOM setup there was no need to calibrate before initiating guiding.
Processing note: my 32GB and 64GB thumb drives would not accept the lunar AVI files. Error message said file size exceeds available memory. Problem was format. Changed flash drive format from Fat32 / 4kb to NTFS / 16 GB and was able to transfer the files.
23 May 2024 – the Flower Moon
Contrary to forecasts the sky has stayed clear ‘till midnight. The breeze experienced earlier this evening has died. The moon looks full, and checking things out it’ll be full at 09:30 this morning. So I’m calling it a full moon.
- Flower Moon s.jpg (826.66 KiB) Viewed 10571 times
23 May 2024 00:13 EDT
Best 10% of 5,000 frames, -5°C cooling, 200 gain, 2 Hz guide rate
AVI capture set for 8 RGB
Explore Scientific 102mm refractor with ASI2600MC-P camera LP filter not used
In at 00:23. It’s still a gentle 60°F.
Happy days. Happy nights
