Astronomy Report – March 9th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa Bourgély

Crew: 293

Date: 09/03/2024

MDRS SOLAR OBSERVATORY

Telescope Requested: Solar Observatory

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None

Images submitted with this report: Sun prominence

Additional Notes:

1. The lower part of the shutter is still stuck, but we’ve got some improvements. Peter shared with us new guidelines for tomorrow, we will apply them during the morning. We are making progress.

2. About imaging with the solar telescope : here is a nice picture of a prominence, and it disappeared some minutes later. I’ve been trying to get good images of sunspots (like the ones that are present in the guide book) but there is no "GAMMA" to tune on SharpCap, and I am not able to tune really well the telescope with only exposure and gain. @peter, any piece of advice on that ? Also, I think tomorrow’s conditions for imaging are better than today’s. I am also wondering how to tune the telescope with the 2 big black knobs ? I’ve been trying them but I can’t see the sun’s surface like the one present in the guide books. Thanks for your help !!

Astronomy Report – March 10th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Bourgély Léa
Crew: 293

Date: 10March2024

Sky Conditions: Clear, 64% of humidity
Wind Conditions: 3 km/h
Observation Start Time: 10 am
Observation End Time: 2 pm
Summary:
Tracking of sunspots
Looking for solar prominence/solar flares
Observations were conducted every hour
Objects Viewed:
Sun

Telescope used :

Musk observatory
Picture attached to this e-mail :

1_ Sunspots with a little bit of "granularity" of the sun

2_ sunspots with no granularity.
Problems Encountered:

Dome is not functional
Two screws located on the eyepiece seem to be a bit used, and may need replacement.
I was not able to show the Sun’s surface .@Peter I followed your procedure but could not find the right balance. Turning the knobs changes the exposure, and I think I was sometimes able to guess the texture, but nothing compared to the pictures in the guide books.
Another question : is there a way for me to know if the Sun has no prominences, or if my settings are just wrong ? Because I was not able to see prominences today, but I don’t really trust myself for the settings.

Astronomy Report – March 6th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa BOURGELY

Crew: 293

Date: 03/06/2024

SOLAR OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None

Images submitted with this report: Sunspots

Additional Notes:

The lower part of the dome was stuck.

Astronomy Report – March 7th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa Bourgély

Crew: 293

Date: 07/03/2024

MDRS SOLAR OBSERVATORY

Telescope Requested: Solar Observatory

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None

Images submitted with this report: None

Additional Notes:

1. I spent the morning in the solar observatory : the upper dome opened completely, I was able to observe.

2. I took many pictures of sunspots, I am working on them to see how to stack them.

3. I am improving my code : I prepared a MatLab code to follow sunspots precisely and get their velocity, but I need to change many things because I don’t have a full image of the Sun. It’s a lot of mathematical work, but it is improving.

4. I tried to process NGC3587 using AstroImageJ but there were many issues with the WCS for the stacking. Any idea of how to solve that ?

Astronomy Report – March 8th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa Bourgély

Crew: 293

Date: 08/03/2024

MDRS SOLAR OBSERVATORY

Telescope Requested: Solar Observatory

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None

Images submitted with this report: None

Additional Notes:

1. The lower part of the shutter is stuck. We have oriented it away from the wind and taped a big tarp on it to prevent sand from entering. The telescope is covered with its aluminium tarp, and closed. Everything is turned off.

Astronomy Report – March 2nd

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa BOURGELY

Crew: 293

Date: 03/02/2024

MLC-RCOS16

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC2268 and NGC2525

Images submitted with this report: Example of wrongly stacked NGC2525

Additional Notes:

I tried to process the images but it seems like there are calibration issues with the star tracking : I am not able to stack them with the WCS. I sent an e-mail to ask Peter about it.

Astronomy Report – March 5th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa BOURGELY

Crew: 293

Date: 03/05/2024

MLC-RCOS16

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC3597, NGC1952, Orion Nebula

Images submitted with this report: M42

Additional Notes:

First try in processing, I am not sure that the colors are right, and it is a bit blurry.

Astronomy Report – February 22nd

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa Bourgély

Crew: 293

Date: 22/02/2024

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC 2268

Images submitted with this report: None

Additional Notes:

It was a first try just to run a test. The settings are wrong and the image is not exploitable.

Astronomy Report – February 13th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan

Crew: 292

Date: 13/02/2024

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: None

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None

Images submitted with this report: NGC 1952 Crab Nebula captured with MDRS WF

Additional Notes:

1. Skynet shows that the MDRS WF telescope’s dome is open and is down with a camera error. Should I visually go and check if the dome is open?

2. I did the photometric observation of AG DRA in BVR filters on February 10th and as you suggested submitted the observations of NGC 1952 and M51 in RCOS 16 with LRGBHalpha filters. But When I checked the data of all three observations, they were not proper and were as follows in all filters. Can you please help me with this? Should I repeat my observations? Did I miss something while setting the observation? Feel free to log into my account and check the submission. It’s the same username and password as I sent you before!

Astronomy Report – February 12th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan

Crew: 292

Date: 12/02/2024

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC 1952 Crab Nebula

Images submitted with this report: M51 Whirlpool galaxy

Additional Notes:

1. Skynet shows MDRS WF telescope is down with a camera error.

2. Kindly provide your feedback on the attached image. I know the galaxy is too far (30 million light years) to image, so not many details of the galaxy are visible. I just wanted to try out and experiment with the telescope.

3. I think the image with the luminous filter is overexposed. Please find the final image with the luminous layer attached below. Some details of the galaxy are not visible with this layer added.

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