IC 5146 & IC 405: Narrowband Test with Starizona SCT Corrector III

 10/21/2024 -- Clear skies but a big moon (79%) coming up at 22:30 motivated an experiment with the dual narrowband (Ha/OIII) filter on the LX10 with the Starizona SCT Corrector III and the Svbony 405cc.

Seeing forecast from cleardarksky for 10/21/2024 showing clear skies, good transparency but bright moonlight.

Seeing forecast for meteoblue showing similar trends.

Spend 1.5hr polar drift aligning... painful...back and forth. Then spend 30 minutes on focusing...with the dual narrowband filter in place. Then searched for bright nebula still visible despite trees from the back deck. Settled on IC 5146 (Cocoon Nebula). Started the internal autoguider... which calibrated fine...and began 180s test image. Created a job in the Indi/Ekos scheduler for IC 5146 with 180sx20 at 5C, gain of 285 and offset 32 in a sequence file to repeat until 05:30.

Promising initial result -- one light frame (180s x1) with gain 285, offset 32, temp at 5c stretched in the Indi/Ekos FITS viewer.

Collection of light frames continued until midnight with 25 light frames.

Indi/Ekos Analysis window with results from guiding and capture of IC 5146 on 10/21/2024 through 10/22/2024 showing diminishing sky quality and a failure to capture new light frames for the second cycle through the scheduler.

Basic stack in ASTAP from 25x180s light frames from 10/21/2024 of IC 5146 without calibration showing excellent star shape and a robust nebula signature. Clear signs of amp glow visible in this stack from uncalibrated light frames only.

Indi Allsky backyard camera results for the evening of 10/21/2024 illustrating nominal "moon mode"  pseudo sky quality metric values which spike with moonrise.

10/22/2024 -- Day two for IC 5146.  Scheduler was still set from the previous day...but did not execute...  had to reset the ending time in the scheduler for tomorrow.  Set IC 5146 to end at 03:00 (based on the previous night's guiding session results). Also added an additional job to start then for IC 405 to run through 06:30.   

Seeing forecast for 10/22/2024 from cleardarksky showing clear skies, excellent transparency with diminishing quality following moonrise around 23:30.

Seeing forecast from meteoblue for 10/22/2024 with clouds appearing after 04:00 but otherwise clear skies and excellent seeing.

 

Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality and star count for the evening of 10/22/2024 showing the sudden drop in camera sensitivity in preparation for moonrise and then the spikes towards 01:00 with actual moonrise.

Basic stack in ASTAP from 82x180s light frames (14760s, 4.1 hours) from 10/21/2024 and 10/22/2024 of IC 5146 without calibration showing excellent star shape and a robust nebula signature. Clear signs of amp glow remain visible in this stack from uncalibrated light frames only.

10/23/2024 -- Additional night of observation of IC 5146 however clouds moving in at ~21:35 intermittently.  The scheduler was modified to extend to 10/24/2024 at 03:00 and launched automatically. Guide errors remained modest (<2") without an indication of changes in polar alignment. Approx 33x180s light frames captured before clouds began to intrude.

Basic stack in ASTAP from 121x180s light frames (21780s, 6 hours) from 10/21/2024 and 10/23/2024 of IC 5146 without calibration showing excellent star shape and a robust nebula signature. Clear signs of amp glow remain visible in this stack from uncalibrated light frames only.

Indi Allsky backyard camera results for the evening of 10/23/2024 through 23:59 showing two main bands of clouds mid-evening.  Nominal sky values varied between ~5,300 and 6,300.

10/24/2024 -- An additional night of automated collection. Scheduler launched collection on its own -- although (as in the previous night) -- the camera cooler did not start automatically. At least two light frames were collected at ambient temperature (~55F) before the cooler was started to pull the camera temperature down to 5C. Guiding remained nominal with total RMS ~2.5".

Seeing forecast by cleardarksky for 10/24/2024-10/25/2024 showing dark, clear skies with moderate seeing.

Seeing forecast by meteoblue with clear, dark skies with no moon until nearly 01:00. 

Ultimately collected 72x180s light frames before trees intersected at just after midnight. Ended collection manually and set up a new job in the scheduler for IC 405... however this did not collect successfully because of an issue between the guider and the Zwo ASI120mc-s driver with an invalid file path. The mount guided successfully until 05:30 and then the scheduler shut the system down normally...but the scheduler never progressed to collecting light frames.

Indi allsky pseudo-sky quality metric and star count for the evening of 10/24-10/25/2024 showing nominal levels of ~7,000 anda single cloud band interrupting collection around 22:45.

10/25/2024 -- Clouds expected by 23:00, but started IC 5146 collection with the scheduler at 19:45.  First, collected 20x8s flat and dark flat calibration frames with gain of 285 and offset of 32 at 5C. Then cleaned the corrector on the OTA after noticing dirt and spots (and also removed a leaf...hopefully accumulated during the day!)  New light frames collected this evening may need a new set of flat calibration frames because of this cleaning step.

Seeing forecast from meteoblue for the evening of 10/25/2024 showing intermittent clouds (30% high level) at 10pm and clouds at lower levels starting near 23:00. 

Seeing forecast for 10/25/2024 from cleardarksky predicting some cloud cover and transparency challenges...although the moon doesn't become an issue at 29% and with a moonrise late at 2am.

Ultimately 51 light frames collected before hitting trees around midnight. Intermediate clouds prevented some collection on and off.  40x180s dark frames and 40x bias frames with gain of 285 and offset 32 were collected before shutting down for the morning.

 

Indi Allsky pseudo-sky quality and star count for the evening of 10/25-10/26/2024 showing varying conditions across the collection. Nominal sky quality values started around 7,000 dropping as low as 5,000 before the cloud band after which values continued worsened gradually back to 7,000.  

10/26/2024 -- Clear skies early and no moon until nearly 3am bodes well for some additional light frames.  However, double checked the polar alignment and focusing...which occupied too much time.  Didn't start collecting light frames until 22:30.  :<  Initial guiding results were <2.5" RMS. 

Seeing forecast for 10/26-10/27/2024 from meteoblue showing the arrival of clouds around midnight with no moon until after 02:30.

Seeing forecast for 10/26 - 10/27/2024 from cleardarkskies is slightly more optimistic, but agrees with meteoblue wrt poor seeing expected.

Initial result up to (and including) light frames from 10/26/2026 (35460s total) in AstroPixelProcessor using the Ha/OIII Color option. Calibrated only with dark, bias and BPM master frames (no attempt at employing flat frames).

10/27/2024 - Attempted to start collection with the scheduler while out of the house...no luck. Altitude limit (>30 degrees) prevented the job from beginning at the scheduled time, and oddly the scheduler does not re-evaluate limits until the next scheduled time (the next day). Ugh. Disappointing given no moon until nearly 4am and clear skies.Started manually at 22:40. Finished with the guider looking at tree leaves.  Started a new collection against IC 405.

Seeing forecast from meteoblue for 10/27/2024 showing exceptionally clear skies and moonrise at nearly 4am.

Very nice seeing forecast from cleardarkskies for 10/27-10/28/2024 with dark, clear skies.

10/28/2024 -- Poor forecast with lots of clouds...but no moon until after 04:30.  Started collection while skies were initially clear...but noted poor guiding (large DEC errors).  Checked polar alignment...which seemed fine (~3").  Rebalanced the OTA on the mount.  Results back in Indi / Ekos with the builtin guiding algorithm still appeared poor initially...but stabilized below 2" RMS.

Seeing forecast for 10/28/2024 showing significant clouds expected.

Seeing forecast from cleardarkskies for 10/28/2024 suggesting hope after 2am.

10/29/2024 -- Very little to no moon, clear skies -- nirvana for capturing astrophotography frames tonight.  Launched IC 5146 from the scheduler starting at 20:48 and noted quick internal guider calibration and tight pattern with low guiding errors (<3" RMS).

Indi/Ekos internal guider drift plot for 10/29/2024 around 22:00 illustrating guide errors nearly equally distributed between RA and DEC and averaging below 3" RMS.

Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality metric and star count for the morning of 10/29/2024 showing consistently favorable skies.

10/30/2024 -- Skies started cloudy, but cleared by midnight.  Collected only against IC 405.  Indi/Ekos internal guider started looking rough...and the guide camera likely needs focusing.  Ultimately, the Indi Allsky backyard camera suggested extremely low sky background levels suggesting a good morning for observation.

Meteoblue seeing forecast downloaded on the morning of 10/31 covering the early morning hours during collection.

Seeing forecast from cleardarksky downloaded on the morning of 10/31 covering the early morning hours during collection.

Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality metric and star count for the early morning hours of 10/31/2024 during IC 405 light frame collection.