27 Jul. Had all kinds of trouble with this image. First, I synched on Deneb but when I attempted the goto the coordinates jumped way to the west of where they should have been. After some investigation, this appears to happen each time I issue a command to move the mount east, even doing it manually. Eventually I got on the target, and of course clouds arrived at that point. Finally got clear enough skies so began imaging. The nebula does not look very impressive in single 10 min. subs, so I thought this was going to be a total bust. I had planned to image up to the meridian then bring the scope in so the back yard sprinklers could run. When I got up to do so, I found the session had crashed about an hour earlier. So the bottom line was I didn't get much data. The good news is that when I stacked what I had, the image actually looks promising (just noisy with only 2 hrs of subs). I will collect more data to add to this and see if it can be salvaged.
31 Jul. Attempting to get more Hα for the Cocoon to add to what I had a few nights ago. Marginal conditions: full moon, gusty wind, and intermittent high clouds. And I can smell smoke in the air, so something is burning somewhere nearby. Add to that more trouble with the PicGoto software jumping when move commands are issued (or overshooting when coming from the other direction). Eventually I got a goto to work. So I'm likely not to get much if anything out of this session, but I'm trying.
Date: 27 & 31 Jul 2015
Subject: IC 5146
Scope: Astrotech AT8IN
Filter: Baader 7 nm Hα
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.5.0.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 24 °C)
Acquisition: Nebulosity 4.0.2, no dither
Exposure: 36x600 s
Stacking: Neb 4.0.2, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, OSC extract R, normalize intensities, square, align, DSS 2x drizzle, median κ-σ stack with κ=1.5.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Wipe 75%; Develop: 80.11%; HDR
ptimize; Deconvolute 3.5 pix; Track 5.9 pix, smoothness 88%; Magic, shrink 3 pix. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools deep space noise reduction; curves; Astroframe.
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