This is the first decent night I've had in about 2 months, but it is really beautiful tonight. I'm trying a bunch of new things: I've wrapped my camera in insulation, hoping I can chill it more effectively. I'm running at -4 °C currently, but it is cool tonight anyway so I'm not sure the absolute temperature is meaningful. I'm also using PHD 2.1.1a to guide, and I'm really loving it. I'm slowly learning how it works. I'm also amazed how easy it was to find the Eastern Veil tonight compared to the first few times I hunted for it. I guess I'm just getting better with the Telrad, and there are a lot of nearby stars to align with so it was pretty simple. Eventually my chiller worked too well and the sensor iced up, so I need to try some desiccant in it.
Date: 23 Sep 2013
Subject: NGC 6992, Eastern Loop of the Veil Nebula or Network Nebula
Scope: Orion ST80 + Antares 0.5x focal reducer (on 1” nosepiece, so ~0.65x)
Filter: Baader UHC-S
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.1.1a
Camera: DSI IIc (chiller at 2.25 A, T = -4 to -8 °C)
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.1.8, no dither
Exposure: 32x300 s
Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.246 Crop; Wipe:Color & Brightness; Develop 75%; Sharpen; Deconvolute 2.8 pix; HDR
ptimize; Color:True Color, Cap Green to Yellow, Dark Sat 2, Bright Sat Full, Sat 200%; Life:Isolate; Magic:Shrink 2. CS6+Astronomy Tools Make stars smaller; AstroFrame.
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