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ASTRO: Full moon M101



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 12th 14, 08:07 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Stefan Lilge
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Posts: 2,269
Default ASTRO: Full moon M101

I can’t really complain about the number of (more or less) cloudless nights this year, but the vast majority of them were compromised either by bad transparency or the moon.
As I wanted to test a new focuser for my 8” GSO RC I used the night of April full moon and the following night for an image of M101. I shot more colour than usual, intending to use it as a colour channel for a planned luminance with my 6” APO, but so far it looks as if we are heading into the “white nights” before I get a chance to get some better lum data.

Original image scale was 0.87”/pixel, but I did 1.5x1.5 software binning to reduce the noise.

Taken from the middle of Berlin with an 8” GSO RC at 1068mm focal length on a G11 mount, Trius SX694 camera, 20x7.5min L, R and G, 17x7.5min B.

Stefan

http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp9/M101GSOsmallgut.jpg

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  #2  
Old May 14th 14, 04:59 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Rick Johnson[_2_]
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Posts: 3,085
Default ASTRO: Full moon M101

On 5/12/2014 2:07 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
I can’t really complain about the number of (more or less) cloudless
nights this year, but the vast majority of them were compromised either
by bad transparency or the moon.
As I wanted to test a new focuser for my 8” GSO RC I used the night of
April full moon and the following night for an image of M101. I shot
more colour than usual, intending to use it as a colour channel for a
planned luminance with my 6” APO, but so far it looks as if we are
heading into the “white nights” before I get a chance to get some better
lum data.
Original image scale was 0.87”/pixel, but I did 1.5x1.5 software binning
to reduce the noise.
Taken from the middle of Berlin with an 8” GSO RC at 1068mm focal length
on a G11 mount, Trius SX694 camera, 20x7.5min L, R and G, 17x7.5min B.
Stefan
http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp9/M101GSOsmallgut.jpg



That gets it a lot better than I'd have suspected. I'm so spoiled by my
dark skies processing with more than a half moon in the sky is pretty
much my limit. I wait for it to set rather than fight a brighter moon.
Even then I do star clusters and bright planetaries etc. rather than
try for galaxies once the moon gets more than three or four days from
new on either side. For some reason the last quarter moon gives me more
issues than the first. I've not figured that one out unless the moon is
actually brighter then. With the first quarter moon I can work in my
darkest part of the sky with it getting dimmer as the night goes on.
After last quarter it is getting brighter in the east and I work west of
the meridian where as the moon gets higher I'm looking more into the LP
of a town of 3000 about 15 miles southwest of here with horrid lighting.
Street lights are totally unshielded bulbs and businesses light up
like day in an effort to out shine their competition treating the
tourists as if they were moths it seems then they scream about the cost
of power. Amazing!

From your location does the full moon make much of a difference? Years
ago when I worked from town (much smaller at 200,000) the moon wasn't
all that much of an influence. LP already had things so bad the moon
had little to add. Though that was in film days working through a deep
red filter with black and white film. I never had digital (other than
my ST-4 guider) back then.

Rick

--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net
  #3  
Old May 14th 14, 08:28 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Stefan Lilge
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Posts: 2,269
Default ASTRO: Full moon M101

Rick,

From your location does the full moon make much of a difference?


the moon was pretty far south, so it didn't get very high. Horizon dust
probably swallowed quite a lot of it's light.
Transparency was very good which almost made up for the moonlight.
In effect the sky wasn't much worse than in a moonless night with mediocre
transparency.

If the moon is high in the sky it brightens the sky considerably even here
in the city.

Stefan


"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...

On 5/12/2014 2:07 PM, Stefan Lilge wrote:
I can’t really complain about the number of (more or less) cloudless
nights this year, but the vast majority of them were compromised either
by bad transparency or the moon.
As I wanted to test a new focuser for my 8” GSO RC I used the night of
April full moon and the following night for an image of M101. I shot
more colour than usual, intending to use it as a colour channel for a
planned luminance with my 6” APO, but so far it looks as if we are
heading into the “white nights” before I get a chance to get some better
lum data.
Original image scale was 0.87”/pixel, but I did 1.5x1.5 software binning
to reduce the noise.
Taken from the middle of Berlin with an 8” GSO RC at 1068mm focal length
on a G11 mount, Trius SX694 camera, 20x7.5min L, R and G, 17x7.5min B.
Stefan
http://ccd-astronomy.de/temp9/M101GSOsmallgut.jpg



That gets it a lot better than I'd have suspected. I'm so spoiled by my
dark skies processing with more than a half moon in the sky is pretty
much my limit. I wait for it to set rather than fight a brighter moon.
Even then I do star clusters and bright planetaries etc. rather than
try for galaxies once the moon gets more than three or four days from
new on either side. For some reason the last quarter moon gives me more
issues than the first. I've not figured that one out unless the moon is
actually brighter then. With the first quarter moon I can work in my
darkest part of the sky with it getting dimmer as the night goes on.
After last quarter it is getting brighter in the east and I work west of
the meridian where as the moon gets higher I'm looking more into the LP
of a town of 3000 about 15 miles southwest of here with horrid lighting.
Street lights are totally unshielded bulbs and businesses light up
like day in an effort to out shine their competition treating the
tourists as if they were moths it seems then they scream about the cost
of power. Amazing!

From your location does the full moon make much of a difference? Years
ago when I worked from town (much smaller at 200,000) the moon wasn't
all that much of an influence. LP already had things so bad the moon
had little to add. Though that was in film days working through a deep
red filter with black and white film. I never had digital (other than
my ST-4 guider) back then.

Rick

--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

 




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