Astronomy Report – April 11th

[category 

astronomy-report]

Name: Maxime Foucart
Crew: 296
Date: 11-04-2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M51, M104
Images submitted with this report: None
Problems Encountered: None
MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: A lot of prominences and sunspots, I did a composite image to try to capture as many details as possible.
Images submitted with this report: Sun_240411_Prominences_Sunspots
Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report – April 12th

[category 

astronomy-report]

Name: Foucart
Crew: 296
Date: 120424
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) None
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None
Images submitted with this report: M104_240412, M51_240412. I wanted to process the RGB but I did not have time today, I will try to process them after.
Problems Encountered: None today, but as I did not have a lot of time to use the robotic observatory, could I have more credits to image more objects later ? I made a request on the website.
MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: None
Images submitted with this report: None
Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report – April 10th

[category 

astronomy-report]

Crew 296 Astronomy Report 10-04-2024
Name: Foucart
Crew: 296
Date: 10-04-2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M51, M104
Images submitted with this report: M100 100424
Problems Encountered: The website is saying again that there is a camera error. With the two new observations I am almost out of credits, would it be possible to get some more ?
MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: /
Images submitted with this report: /
Problems Encountered: /

Astronomy Report – April 7th

[category 

astronomy-report]

Name: Maxime Foucart
Crew: 296
Date: 07-04-2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M100
Images submitted with this report: None
Problems Encountered: The skynet website is reporting a camera error for MDRS WF, and it seems I can’t access the telescope RCOS-16 from the Skynet website
MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: There were a lot of prominences and sunspots, I did multiple captures and created a composite image of mostly the entire Sun by using Photoshop.
Images submitted with this report: Sun 240207 Prominences and sunspots, composite.png
Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report – April 3rd

[category 

astronomy-report]

Name: Maxime Foucart
Crew: 296
Date: 03-04-2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) None
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None
Images submitted with this report: None
Problems Encountered: None
MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: Multiple prominences and sunspot, imaged at 4:50PM.
Images submitted with this report: Sun 240403 Prominence and sunspot.png
Problems Encountered: I could not find the GAMMA slider in Sharp Cap, so I made the picture without modifying the GAMMA.

Astronomy Report – March 13th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Bourgély Léa
Crew: 293

Date: 13March2024

Sky Conditions: 60% of cloud cover
Wind Conditions: 20 km/h
Observation Start Time: 8:30 am
Observation End Time: 12:30 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_ 11:13 Sunspots with a little bit of "granularity" of the sun and a prominence
2_ 11:22 Prominence formation

3_ 11:23 Prominence development
4_ 11:25 Prominence disappearing
Problems Encountered:

Lower shutter of the dome is still not functional
It seems that the astronomer laptop is not charging anymore. Any info about that ? It works while plugged but stays stuck at 8%

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 ?

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