NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula)

Collection notes from 05/05.  No moon.  Some breezes. No clouds.  Temps in the low 60's. Seeing described as very poor on meteoblue (40+m/s) and Cleardarksky.com.  Tripod re-positioned over previous location (grass marks from vibration pads).  Initial polar alignment through the polar scope was a bit difficult... lots of branches.  PHD2 drift alignment (with NGC 4438 centered) showed ~2' (3px) error after several minutes of drifting.  Once again, polar scope works on the first attempt.  

First collection with the Zwo Asi 120MC-S following firmware upgrade and the Cosmicar 50mm F1.8 lens was refocused (put the line under the 7).  Also readjusted centering using Denebola (also adjusted ST80 focusing w/ the Canon T3I).  Was successful in getting alignment between guide camera and Canon to within 128 arcseconds.  

Two jobs scheduled: NGC 4428 until 03:00 then NGC 6888.  Guiding was tough... switch to using ST4 cable and binning (2x). RMS values a bit higher than 5.  NGC 6888 collection launched automatically at 03:00am...no intervention.  15x180s frames collected total until dawn precautions ended collection and parked mount after 45 minutes of collection.

Following collection, 30x flat (blue sky) and 30x dark flat frames collected.

Processed in Astro Pixel Processor with Master Dark, Master Bias and bad pixel map from the Markarian's Chain project.  Finished with adjusting levels in the Gimp.



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