M 94
04/17/2026 -- Clear skies, no moon. Setting up for broadband imaging for M 94. Coming from a disappointing previous session where the Indi Svbony CCD driver was crashing repeatedly preventing operation. Uninstalled all Ekos/Indi software (and repository)...reset to a stock Ubuntu with no extra repositories. Then after reinstalling several days later, found the new Indi/Ekos/Kstars installation fully working.
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| Seeing forecast for 04/17-18/2026 showing great conditions expected after 01:00. |
Started with an initial focus and found small donut stars. Tried using the Shoestring Astronomy FCUBS and Meade Zero Tilt micro-focuser...but found it reached its inner limit (likely due to very warm tempertaures near 70F). Manual adjustment with the primary mirror adjustment knob on the Meade LX10 brought this to sharp focus.
Next performed an initial polar drift alignment in PHD2 running on the venerable Odroid C4. Initial error was only ~4'. Adjusted by turning the rotating stage knob right... bad move. Off by 11'. Second try over-corrected with an alignment error of -5. Final adjustment brought the polar alignment error under 1'.
Set up the scheduler for M 94 (running through 04/18 at 01:45 and then M 13 through 04:50. Used 80s collection with the UV/IR filter with gain at 284, offset 24 and temperature at 0C. Configured dark frame collection at 04:20ish using 80s exposures with the same gain and offset and the black filter.
Noted that the Indi Allsky backyard camera indicated a pseudo sky quality metric of remarkable value (dropping to 4200 by 12:30).
Ultimately, overnight, only M 94 was collected. Following the Meridian flip (around 01:00), only a couple light frames for M 94 were captured... and then the session manager capturing light frames reported errors (guiding) and capture repeatedly failed. Oddly, the M 13 job in the scheduler was placed on the following day, and the Ekos scheduler simply retried the M 94 task repeatedly. The final job in the scheduler was collection of 20x80s dark frames using the dark filter. This did occur successfully at ~04:20. The scheduler then shutdown the camera chiller and parked the mount successfully.
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| Ekos Analyze tab for 04/17-18/2026 for M 94 collection. Illustrates problems post-meridian flip after 01:00. Guide errors are ~1" overall. |
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| Weewx outdoor weather station measurements for 04/17-18/2026 illustrating no wind or gusts overnight with temperatures falling to near 55F. During M 94 collection, temperatures were near 60F. The Indi Allsky backyard camera did illustrate a faint cloud moving through the field of regard from 00:30 until 01:10 which may have negatively impacted M 94 light frames. This pseudo sky quality metric peaked at ~6500 near 00:50 (towards the end of collection). Until 00:30, jSQM (pseudo sky quality) metric was near 4200 (remarkably good). Although the jSQM metric jumped during M 94 collection (suggesting high level cloud), the star count metric did not move during thisi time. |
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| Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality metric. Noted one set of very faint clouds moving through the field of regard around midnight. |
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| Seeing forecast for 04/22-23/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) showing a mixed picture with significant moon and some clouds expected overnight. |
Adjusted sequence files for M94 and a Dark collection (set temp to 5C, changed output directory) and entered these into the scheduler. Launched the M 94 task in the scheduler at 22:09 with jSQM at ~17600.
Ultimately, overnight 120x80s light (UV/IR) frames were collected of M 94. Guide errors were reasonable (~1' RMS).
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| Ekos Analyze tab for collection on 04/22-23/2026 for M 94. |
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| Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky qualiy metric (jSQM, top) and star count metrics for 04/22-23/2026 showing the impact of the moon setting near 02:10 and the lack of major clouds overnight. |
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| Weewx outdoor weather station results (temperature top, wind bottom) for 04/22-23/2026 illustrating good conditions (no gusts). |
05/07/2026. Decent skies expected overnight after 01:30...but then the moon is rising...so... may not be a great evening for observation. Still, uncovered the OTA and set up for M 94 collection to see what comes out.
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| Seeing forecast for 05/07-08/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) suggesting poor conditions (clouds) through at least midnight with the moon rising (at 64%) after 01:30. |
Initial PHD2 drift alignment showed significant error (22'). Turned then azimuth adjustment wheel to the left. Dropped the error down to ~4.5'. Clouds started to roll by. :< Turned left...over-compensated... got -5.6'. Turned right. Got this down to -0.36'.
The M 94 task was set to begin in the scheduler late (23:00) due to the early clouds and forecast for clearing skies near mid-night. The task started...but was held up waiting for a meridian flip. After twenty minutes of wait time, stopped the scheduler and restarted...which resulted in a meridian flip. Then noted some issue getting plate solving and alignment correct initially with M 94 very near zenith. Several iterations were needed to bring the target in...but it did succeed. The first light frame was successfully captured at 23:51.
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| Ekos Analyze tab for 05/07-08/2026 illustrating behavior when the minimum altitude threshold is hit. |
Ultimately, only 22x80s light frames were collected. Guide errors interrupted collection between 00:05 and 00:33. Then the first iteration of the M 94 job ended with this light frame and the scheduler launched a new task. This task would focus, align and guide but not capture. This repeated until shutdown after 03:12. The minimum altitude threshold was hit (42 degrees).
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| Indi Allsky backyard camera star count (top) and jSQM (pseudo sky quality metric) measurements for 05/07-08/2026 showing great skies (~4000 jSQM) until the moon rise. |
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| Weewx outdoor weather station results for 05/07-08/2026 showing no wind gusts after o |
05/09/2026 -- occasional low level clouds plus the moon at 44% (starting at 02:30) make for potentially mixed results. Performed a drift alignment and found the polar alignment error at 2.4' and left the OTA alone. Set up the scheduler for M 94 through 01:00, then switched over to M 13 (through 02:00) and M 92 clusters. The scheduler limited M 92 due to the 42' altitude limit. The Indi Allsky backyard camera showed an initial jSQM (pseudo sky quality metric) of ~6900 (with 4000 being a good measurement) at 21:50. Conditions at the start of the session (from the Weewx outdoor weather station):
"time": "2026-05-09T22:00:00-0400",
"generator": "weewx 5.3.1",
"temperature": 62.649 °F,
"dewpoint": 54.972 °F,
"humidity": 76.0 %,
"heat index": 62.187 °F,
"wind speed": 0.0 mph,
"wind gust": 0.0 mph,
"wind chill": 62.649 °F
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| Seeing forecast for 05/09-10/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) showing a mixed forecast with metoblue reflecting reality better (at least, early in the evening with clouds apparent). |
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