NGC 6960

 08/18/2026 -- Finally, after lots of cloudy / rainy nights... an evening with few (if any clouds) and modest moon (setting after 23:20).  After such a long gap, testing basics with a familiar narrow band target -- NGC 6960 (West Veil Nebula).  With temperatures still in the 70's at 23:00, set the camera chiller to 5C.


Seeing forecast for 08/18-19/2026 showing few clouds...and no moon after 23:20.

Started with a PHD drift alignment.  Remarkably, after weeks sitting idle, the initial polar alignment error was modest at -5'.  Turned to the left...noted visible shift in the OTA...and overcompensated at ~9'.  Turned back to the right (again, noted significant shift in the OTA) and saw -17.  :<   Back to the left.  After ~an hour of back and forth shenanigans... eventually brought this to ~4'.  Then tested the internal guider while running an initial autofocus.  Found the current focus for the OTA to be close to optimal...well within range for the autofocus routine in Ekos.

Set up the camera tab for 20x80s UV/IR light frames and 20x120s dual narrow-band light frames...and set up the scheduler to repeat these until 04:45 tomorrow...and launched the task.

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