ASTRO: M11

It was a great clear night last night after a severe thunderstorm (dry)
the night before. It took an hour to chainsaw my way to the mailbox come
morning. But imaging was a bust even with the now clear sky. Every
frame had many cosmic ray hits! Big nasty ones. I tried another shot
of the nova to see if it changed any in two days but there are 40 fully
saturated cosmic ray hits in only 5 one minute frames! Darks or lights,
same thing. In the spring of 2006 when I started with a 6" f/4 and ST-7
I was having one or two per shot but median combine got rid of them.
Then they faded away to the point I've had only one or two on the
ST-11000's much larger chip in a years time. Until last night and they
are back far worse than before. So bad I doubt I can process the
images. So I quit and spent the night looking for Perseids. By 3 a.m.
they were up to 40 an hour. Tonight it will be cloudy. I have no
camera good for meteor work so didn't even try. Just enjoyed the night
sky. Maybe someone can post a shot or two of the shower. I have heavy
overcast that's expected to last all night.

I did process an old shot of M11 taken before dawn months ago. This is
an object that I seem to think of when seeing is lousy. But with the
star field it needs to be done on a night of good seeing. So I reduced
it by a third and that helped some. To tone down the background stars I
used only a few short exposures.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x2' RGB=3x2' all binned 2x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Rick, very nice cluster, the stars have a quite uniform brightness.
As for the cosmics, did you change anything in your setup or your
observatory?

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
It was a great clear night last night after a severe thunderstorm (dry)
the night before. It took an hour to chainsaw my way to the mailbox come
morning. But imaging was a bust even with the now clear sky. Every
frame had many cosmic ray hits! Big nasty ones. I tried another shot
of the nova to see if it changed any in two days but there are 40 fully
saturated cosmic ray hits in only 5 one minute frames! Darks or lights,
same thing. In the spring of 2006 when I started with a 6" f/4 and ST-7
I was having one or two per shot but median combine got rid of them.
Then they faded away to the point I've had only one or two on the
ST-11000's much larger chip in a years time. Until last night and they
are back far worse than before. So bad I doubt I can process the
images. So I quit and spent the night looking for Perseids. By 3 a.m.
they were up to 40 an hour. Tonight it will be cloudy. I have no
camera good for meteor work so didn't even try. Just enjoyed the night
sky. Maybe someone can post a shot or two of the shower. I have heavy
overcast that's expected to last all night.

I did process an old shot of M11 taken before dawn months ago. This is
an object that I seem to think of when seeing is lousy. But with the
star field it needs to be done on a night of good seeing. So I reduced
it by a third and that helped some. To tone down the background stars I
used only a few short exposures.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x2' RGB=3x2' all binned 2x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount
ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Nope, I hadn't even been in the observatory "before and after". It is
run from the house unless I need to change something. Only change was
the high winds of the mostly dry thunderstorm. They knocked down a lot
of trees in the area so I had to cut my way out to the "main road". My
drive is 1 km long before I reach a maintained road (gravel). I lost
several trees across my black powder shooting range as well. I now have
my firewood for the 2008-9 winter! Well it is in 8 foot lengths until
weather gets a bit colder for cutting and splitting.

Something must have come in on the high winds is all I can think of.
Problem was a bit less last night but I still got nothing accomplished
as clouds quickly killed the night -- again.

Rick

Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick, very nice cluster, the stars have a quite uniform brightness.
As for the cosmics, did you change anything in your setup or your
observatory?

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...

It was a great clear night last night after a severe thunderstorm (dry)
the night before. It took an hour to chainsaw my way to the mailbox come
morning. But imaging was a bust even with the now clear sky. Every
frame had many cosmic ray hits! Big nasty ones. I tried another shot
of the nova to see if it changed any in two days but there are 40 fully
saturated cosmic ray hits in only 5 one minute frames! Darks or lights,
same thing. In the spring of 2006 when I started with a 6" f/4 and ST-7
I was having one or two per shot but median combine got rid of them.
Then they faded away to the point I've had only one or two on the
ST-11000's much larger chip in a years time. Until last night and they
are back far worse than before. So bad I doubt I can process the
images. So I quit and spent the night looking for Perseids. By 3 a.m.
they were up to 40 an hour. Tonight it will be cloudy. I have no
camera good for meteor work so didn't even try. Just enjoyed the night
sky. Maybe someone can post a shot or two of the shower. I have heavy
overcast that's expected to last all night.

I did process an old shot of M11 taken before dawn months ago. This is
an object that I seem to think of when seeing is lousy. But with the
star field it needs to be done on a night of good seeing. So I reduced
it by a third and that helped some. To tone down the background stars I
used only a few short exposures.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x2' RGB=3x2' all binned 2x2, STL-11000XM,
Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".