Observing Log for Mike Durkin
11/14/2020 about 9:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 6/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: about 45-55 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified T3i
I wanted to do some DSLR photometry, but the clouds kept getting in the way, even though they were pretty
thin. I cut the evening short without taking eny exposures because the Astrotrac arm got "stuck".
I was able to fix it later that evening by manually rotating the screw for the arm so that it was able
to fully go back to the "home" position.
11/13/2020 about 9:00PM-11:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing ?/5
Temperature: about 45-55 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified T3i, Stellarvue 70mm refractor and Star Analyzer 100
I wanted to see if I could get a decent spectrum of γ Cas. At first I also tried to
use 2 extention tubes, but could never get a star to show up in the live preview screen. It
also seemed very unstable doing that.
I was able to eventually get γ Cas visible in live preview, but it was faint. Taking
10-15 second exposures did show the spectrum, although not too many fainter stars were
visible. Also there was some drift with an exposure that long.
The whole setup was also a bit ustable since vibrations took too long to die down and
the camera adapteer tube came loose too many times. Once the camera almost fell to the
ground. Luckily I had wrapped the camera strap around part of the mount which probably
saved it.
|
| Spectrum of γ Cas using a DSLR single image of 5 seconds, ISO 400 and a Stellarvue 70mm. |
|
|
Spectrum of γ Cas using a DSLR video file of 118 seconds and a Stellarvue 70mm. I had to convert the MOV file to a SER file and stack in Siril and then calibrate in Rspec. I'm not very pleased with the end result, perhaps because it was too faint? |
11/8/2020 about 8:00PM-9:30PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing 4/5
Temperature: about 45-60 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified T3i
Much better conditions compared to yesteray.
DSLR photometry of CH Cyg and AG Peg.
11/7/2020 about 7:00PM-10:00PM
Locust Valley, NY
Transparency: 4-6/10, Seeing 3/5
Temperature: about 50-65 degrees
Equipment: Hutech modified T3i, Stellarvue 70mm refractor, Star Analyzer 100
Started out with DSLR photometry of P Cyg. There was a thin layer of clouds
all over so I didn't get to do CH Cyg or any other stars.
After a bit then I wanted to try using the Star Adventurer with the 70mm refractor
and the Star Analyzer to see if could get a good spectrum of γ Cas. It took
me a while to get the Synguider set up. Although I was able to test out using the
Imaging Source camera with the Star Analyzer on Mars through the guidescope, but
I had no luck getting Mars centered or in focus with the same camera though. I don't
think this configuration is reasonable to use for spectroscopy.
Eventually the clouds got a bit worse so I just gave up though.
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