CN10 testing on a M31 Mosaic

 09/08/2024 -- Testing the venerable Celestron 10" F4.7 Newtonian on the Celestron CGEM DX on the dolly with the Svbony 405cc, the Baader RCCI Rowe Coma Corrector and no other filters.  Initial configuration completed on 09/07, but found the balance wrong. Rotated the OTA in the rings to position the camera & finder facing down towards the mount.  This showed immediate improvements with a rapid calibration in PHD2 as well as within the Indi/Ekos guider calibration tab as well.  Conditions were reasonable with no moon and clear skies.

Clear Dark Sky seeing forecast for 09/08-09/09 showing no cloud cover but marginal seeing conditions expected.

Indi Allsky camera pseudo-sky quality metric captured on 09/08/2024 around 11pm showing a jSQM of ~4600 at 11 (dropping to ~4300 at 11:50pm).

Meteoblue seeing forecast for 09/08-09/09/2024 showing few clouds expected overnight.

Started a capture of 40x60s lights on NGC 6960 (Western Veil Nebula) in the scheduler set to run until 2:45am... with M33 following at 03:30.  Utilized PHD2 on the Odroid to obtain a reasonable polar alignment (near zero...but bouncing around significantly).  Slewed the OTA to NGC 6960 and used the focus tool to achieve a fine initial focus.  Once launched in the Indi/Ekos scheduler, the initial plate solving, guiding calibration and guiding itself were immediately successful.  The 18th light frame was examined in ASTAP and appeared nominal...although some coma was noted in the extreme upper right edge of the frame.

Overnight 118x60s light frames were collected for NGC 6960. Of these...only 40 were complete (non-zero...and full size FITS files).  Even more would have been collected...and M33 (a secondary target in the scheduler) would have been captured (since it aligned and started to guide correctly at 03:30) but the SD card on the Odroid XU4 was full.  :<  Cleared out 2023 and many 2024 directories to make room.

The next evening, collected 40x12s light frames at gain of 0, offset of 20, with the Svbony 405cc cooled to 5 Centigrade using the lcd panel on lowest light setting and 2x sheets of white poster board quartered and laid on top of each other.  Rotated the stack (sitting with the OTA pointed to zenith) so ~15 frames were collected at a different orientation.  Next, covered the OTA with the OTA lid and rain cover for 40x12s dark flat and 40x0.000032s bias collection at the same settings.

Celestron CN10 with the LCD light panel and 2x sheets of poster board set up to collect long exposure (12s) flat frames. Long exposures are reported as preferred for the Svbony 405cc due to amp glow.

09/09/2024 -- Another night with no clouds...great temperatures (60->50F)...and moon setting at around 10:30pm at ~40%.  

Meteoblue seeing forecast for Silver Spring for 09/09-09/10 showing no clouds and the moon gone by 11pm.

Cleardarksky seeing forecast for 09/09 - 09/10/2024 illustrating marginal seeing all night but good transparency & darkness.

This time taking a look at the Eastern Veil (NGC 6992)... which Telescopius suggests should just fit within the field of regard for this 1200mm F4.72 Celestron CN10 with the Svbony 405cc camera. After collecting the flats, darks and biases in support of the collect that occurred on 09/08 of the Western Veil, attempted to correct the issue with over-correction by the Baeder RCC-I by shortening the distance from the optic to the camera chip with the vario-lock adjuster.  Went through several iterations of shortening, refocusing...analyzing star shape.  On the third iteration, the overall star field began to look worse..and so brought the distance back in to an intermediate length.  At this point shifted focus to begin collection on a mosaic over Andromeda (M31).  161x60s light frames were collected over night for the first part fo the mosaic.

09/10/2024 -- Additional evening of collection with the moon at 43% but down by 11pm.  Polar alignment appeared fine in PHD2 running on the Odroid XU4 w/o any adjustments required.  Because M31 was not up high enough, started collection on NGC 6992 with 60s frames, gain 285 and offset 32. Autofocus followed by guide calibration and then guiding were all successful (very low RMS guide errors of <2").  Readjusted the camera orientation to fully encompass NGC 6992.  Sadly, this may have impacted collection from 09/09 since flats were not obtained at that camera orientation.  Interrupted collection repeatedly after noting the nebula was not contained in the frame (drifting during drizzle?).

Meteoblue seeing forecast for Silver Spring on 09/09 - 09/10/2024 showing no clouds and the moon down at 11pm.

Seeing forecast from cleardarksky for 09/09-09/10/2024 showing good darkness, marginal seeing and transparency.

Indi/Ekos autofocus tool on the CN10 on 09/09/2024.

After M31 was above the trees, set up an old scheduler with a previous attempt at the M31 mosaic (from 20231118).  Ultimately, parts 1, 2 and 3 (30x120s) completed with the OTA parked and the camera off in the morning.  

Indi Ekos Analyze screen for the M31 mosaic schedule executed on 09/10-09/11/2024.

09/11/2024 -- Skies not quite as clear... and moon at 50% and setting again around 11pm.  Goal for today:  collect flats and flat darks for the M31 mosaic (parts 1, 2 and 3) collected previously...and then examine whether the Baeder RCC-I coma corrector is set up correctly (or not). Repeatedly poor star shapes suggest over-correction (vari-lock adjustment necessary).  Collected 30x5s flats and dark flats at Gain 100 and offset 32 to correspond with yesterday's collection.  Then worked to reset the RCC-I to the original veri-lock position to start optimizing again.

Meteoblue seeing forecast for 09/11-09/12 2024 showing a few clouds and moon at 50% through midnight.

Cleardarksky forecast for Montgomery County showing marginal transparency & seeing.

Map of HCF values for stars from Part 2 of the Mosaic collected on 9/10-9/11 highlighting the poor image quality from the RCC-I at the veri-lock position from 09/10-09/11 (before resetting to original position on 09/12).

Started the scheduler around 12:35am on 09/12/2024 with part 1, 4-12 of the M31 mosaic scheduler.  Noted the Indi Allsky camera pseudo sky quality index plunged from 17,000 to 5600 following the setting of the moon.

Indi Allsky pseudo-sky quality map (top graph) and # of stars (bottom graphic) for the evening of 09/12/2024.

09/12/2024 -- poor skies...lots of clouds...moon doesn't go down until midnight.  Still... the scope is out so running the scheduler to see if any light frames overnight are usable.  Scheduler set up for the M31 mosaic with parts 6, 10 and 9 queued. Ran PHD2 on the Odroid XU4 and it drifted up and down... but settled around 0".

Meteoblue seeing forecast looks marginal with lots of high level clouds.

The forecast for seeing from cleardarksky is less worrisome...with only some clouds noted.

The Indi Allsky backyard camera shows a pseudo sky quality metric of ~16,500...mostly indicative of the moon.

After the moon set, as expected, the pseudo-sky metric fell dramatically to an far more optimal value of ~4000 at 1am on the morning of 09/13/2024.

09/13/2024 -- Another evening with relatively poor skies (cloudy) and moon lasting through 1:30am.  Double check polar alignment with PHD2 running on the Odroid XU4, focused the OTA and set up the scheduler, but didn't begin acquiring light frames until after 1:30am.  

Cleardarksky seeing prediction for 09/13-09/14/2024 showing poor seeing and marginal transparency with few clouds.

Backyard allsky camera showing the drop from a pseudo sky metric of ~16,400 to ~5300 at 2am.

Inidi/Ekos Analyze results from capture from 01:30 through 04:30 completing two 30x120s panels of the M31 mosaic.

09/15/2024 -- After dark, collected 30x20s flat frames and dark flat frames with the LCD panel on top of the OTA while pointed at zenith.  Also collected SER movie frames of the moon using AstroDMX Capture on the Odroid XU4.