Category: Astronomy Report

Crew 223 Astronomy Report Mar 06 2020

Name: Florian Delpech
Crew: 223
Date: 3/6/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: The last 6 galaxies for the research
project: NGC 4579 ; NGC 4636 ; NGC 4621 ; NGC 4666 ; NGC 5047 ; NGC
3992. I am happy to see that I am lucky with the weather!

Images submitted with this report: 4 very different galaxies where
supernovae could maybe be fine (they have to be compared to the
reference image and the ones taken during Eishi's mission).
I am impressed to see how diverse the galaxies are!

Problems Encountered: The calibration file MDRS14_mfalt_V is missing, I
used an older one

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: N/A

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

Crew 223 Astronomy Report Mar 05 2020

Name: Florian Delpech
Crew: 223
Date: 3/5/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC 1961 ; NGC 4490 ; NGC 4450 ; NGC
3368 ; NGC 3115 ; NGC 2403 ; NGC 4618 ; NGC 4559 ; NGC 3521 ; NGC 4569 ;
NGC 4725 ; NGC 3675. This is part of the research project aiming at
observing about 30 galaxies per week to try to find a supernovae.

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Granules

Images submitted with this report: A picture of the Sun

Problems Encountered: N/A

Crew 223 Astronomy Report Mar 04 2020

Name: Florian Delpech
Crew: 223
Date: 3/4/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: Same as yesterday : IC 342 ; NGC 2775; NGC 4449 ; NGC 4254 ; NGC 4125 ; NGC 3338 ; NGC 2683 ; M100 ; NGC 6503; NGC 5248 ; NGC 4038. This is part of the research project aiming at observing about 30 galaxies per week to try to find a supernovae.

Images submitted with this report: A picture of M81.

Problems Encountered: When I wanted to calibrate images with AstroImageJ for M81 and IC1805, I used calibration files (MDRS-WF_mbias, MDRS-WF_mdark, etc.) taken from Skynet on March, 3rd. However, when I launched CCD Data Processor, the following error message appeared : "Fileinfo parameter error. Offset + image size > file length".

To solve the problem, I took calibration files from a previous observation (a week ago) and it worked. So maybe the calibration files from yesterday were too heavy.

Also, I don’t know if it is linked but the image with Halpha filter for both objects was very noised and so unusable.

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: N/A

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

Crew 223 Astronomy Report Mar 03 2020

Name: Florian Delpech
Crew: 223
Date: 3/3/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: IC 342 ; NGC 2775 ; NGC 4449 ; NGC
4254 ; NGC 4125 ; NGC 3338 ; NGC 2683 ; M100 ; NGC 6503 ; NGC 5248 ; NGC
4038. This is part of the research project aiming at observing about 30
galaxies per week to try to find a supernovae.

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: I took some images of the Sun following the
Quick guide. I did not observe any particular feature.

Images submitted with this report: A picture of the Sun

Problems Encountered: When I follow the Quick Guide, it seems that using
the different knobs should lead to see granules on the surface of the
Sun. However, I just see a quite smooth grey surface. Do I have to
adjust something?

Crew 223 Astronomy Report Mar 02 2020

Name: Florian Delpech
Crew: 223
Date: 3/2/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M81, M106, NGC2403, NGC6946, IC1805. This is part of the astrophotography project

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: I used for the first time the observatory today following the quick guide. I tried to observe visually some solar features but I did not notice any special phenomenon.

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

Crew 222 Astronomy Report 28 Feb 2020

Crew Astronomer: Eishi Kim

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: Back to the research project, the
following targets are in the queue despite a cloudy sky: NGC 1961, NGC
925, NGC 4490, NGC 3368, NGC 3115, NGC 598, IC 342, NGC 5248, NGC 4038,
NGC 6503, NGC 2403.

Images submitted with this report: None

Problems Encountered: None

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: N/A

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

Astronomy Report

Name: Eishi Kim
Crew: 222
Date: 2/27/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: The pending observation of M43 should
be completed tonight.

Images submitted with this report: The final image of M51 was rendered
today and is attached to this report.

Problems Encountered: The red filter seems to be particularly affected
by the bad pixels issue. However, this has been mitigated so far by
using the Dust&scratches tool in Photoshop.

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: The observatory was used today for solar
imaging, but no interesting feature is to be reported.

Images submitted with this report: None

Problems Encountered: None

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Astronomy Report

Name: Eishi Kim
Crew: 222
Date: 2/26/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M34, M43 and M51 will be imaged as part of the astrophotography project.

Images submitted with this report: You will find the final images of M45 and NGC 281 as attachments.

Problems Encountered: None

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Visual observation was done today with crewmates, but no interesting feature is to be reported.

Images submitted with this report: None

Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report

Name: Eishi Kim
Crew: 222
Date: 2/25/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-WF

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: The double cluster NGC 884/869 and
M45 join the observation queue. The 3 missing Halpha frames of NGC 281
from Sol 4 should also be imaged.

Images submitted with this report: None

Problems Encountered: None

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: N/A

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A

Astronomy Report

Name: Eishi Kim
Crew: 222
Date: 2/24/2020

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: Keeping on with the research project,
the following targets are added to the queue for the second round, in
addition to the pending observations: NGC 2683, NGC 3031, NGC 2655, NGC
3344, NGC 4449, NGC 4254, NGC 3338, NGC 2775, M100. This will provide me
with standard images that can be compared to the existing reference
images, in order to try detecting a supernova.

Images submitted with this report: None, but the first standard images
are being analysed using the Photoshop overlay function. No promising
finding is to be reported so far.

Problems Encountered: Frames of NGC 4618, NGC 3521, NGC 4725 and NGC
3675 had WCS registration errors which make them unusable for analysis.
New observations are however planned in the coming days.

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: N/A

Images submitted with this report: N/A

Problems Encountered: N/A