The night after SN2023ixf was first observed, Ethan and I were at the Texas Star Party and decided to collaborate on the supernova since imaging time would be limited due to clouds moving into the area. We both had new imaging rigs (Sharpstar SCA260s and Prima Luce Lab focusers and rotators) we put together a couple of months earlier, but a bad run of cloudy nights prevented us from getting any meaningful time with them under the stars prior to the star party. This meant we were still very much in the "working out the kinks" phase with the scopes...which is extremely frustrating when you have dark skies above you and you are “heads down” trying to figure out how to make the magic happen with the new equipment.
Despite having to toss a bunch of subframes due to passing clouds, we were able to piece together four hours of RGB data between the two of us before the clouds rolled in for good. Our plan to capture Ha data was foiled by the clouds permanently taking up residence in front of M101 shortly after I had switched to my Ha filter.
UPDATE (28 Oct 23): Added 45 minutes of Ha data captured while putting first light on the SCA260 the month prior to the supernova from my backyard.
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