Broadband Imaging - NGC3184 / M106

 2/13/2026 -- No moon, no clouds (until 05:00)...clear, cold skies.  Time for some broadband imaging on galaxies in view.  Evening started with relatively poor skies (pseudo sky quality metric of ~9200 at 21:00).  Configuration unchanged with the Celestron CGX DX mount, Meade LX10, Starizona Corrector III (0.63 corrector and reducer), Xagyl filter wheel, Svbony 405cc (chilled to -7C).


Seeing forecast for 02/13-14/2026 from meteoblue (top) and clearoutside (bottom) showing clear skies expected until 05:00 and no moon.

Initial drift alignment in phd2 running on the Odroid C4 showed an alignment error of ~9'. Not bad, considering it's been sitting for weeks through strong winds, snow, etc. with the cover on.  First adjustment (to the left) over-corrected...with an error of -7'. After several adjustments back & forth...ended up below 1".

Set up the scheduler for light frame collection on M106 through 05:35.  Sequence file configured with gain 285, offset 24, UV/IR filter only, temp at -7C.

Pseudo sky quality metric from the Indi Allsky outdoor camera remained stable near 9100 (not great).  Conditions from the Weewx outdoor weather station when the scheduler started near 21:45 included:

  •         "time": "2026-02-13T21:40:00-0500",
  •         "generator": "weewx 5.2.0"
  •         "temperature": {"value": 25.662962962962965, "units": "°F"},
  •         "dewpoint": {"value": 15.90270276243691, "units": "°F"},
  •         "humidity": {"value": 66.0, "units": "%"},
  •         "heat index": {"value": 25.662962962962965, "units": "°F"},
  •         "wind speed": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
  •         "wind gust": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
  •         "wind chill": {"value": 25.662962962962965, "units": "°F"
Discovered that M106 is still stuck in the trees.  Set up NGC 3726 until 01:35 to start capture on an interesting target since M106 is still too low.  Found that NGC 3726 is still too low...in the trees.  Switched the scheduler to NGC 3184.

Ultimately, 80x80s light frames were collected for NGC 3184 and 29x80s light frames were collected for M106.  Ekos was stuck repeaating the meridian flip over and over.  This interrupted collection repeatedly for M106...and the system was eventually stuck in a meridian flip task that never completed.


Ekos Analyze tab for NGC 3184 (top) and M106 (bottom) illustrating typical guide errors of ~1.5" RMS, overall sky quality overnight.

Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality (top) and star count (bottom) metrics for 02/13-14/2026 showing fairly poor quality skies overnight (near 9100...where 4000 would be clear skies).

Weewx outdoor weather station measurements for 02/13-14/2026 showing only very brief wind gusts overnight (bottom... quiet nearly all night) and temperature and dew points (top).


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