Acquired this target with the PicGoto from Phad (Gamma UMa) early in the evening and imaged it up past the meridian with 300 s subframes. Performed a meridian flip and acquired it again the same way, started imaging with 480 s subframes, and went to bed. I like the PicGoto! Conditions were variable; early in the session gusty breezes were a problem. They settled down, but calm was accompanied by high clouds. Guiding got very good before the meridian flip, but I couldn't seem to reestablish such good performance afterward (I'm sure the changes in balance had something to do with that, even though I did move the counterweights to try to keep the mount East-heavy). I struggled a bit with the processing putting the different time scales together. I’ve stacked the 300 s subs separately from the 480 s subs, then just averaged the two.
Date: 8 Mar 2014
Subject: NGC 3718 & 3729
Scope: AT8IN + High Point Scientific Coma Corrector
Filter: none
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors) + PicGoto Simplificado + Cartes du Ciel
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.2.1 (Win ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc (no chiller, T = 10-5.5 °C)
Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.2.0, no dither
Exposure: 33 x 300 s + 23 x 480 s
Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack 300 s and 480 s separately, then average stack the two.
Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.279 Crop; Rotate 180°; Wipe 78%; Develop 89.52%; Color:Scientific 216% cap green to brown; HDR
ptimize; Deconvolute 1.8; Life:Moderate; Track:Read Noise 10.54%; Magic:Shrink 1. CS6 Astronomy Tools increase star color, Less Crunchy, AstroFrame.
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