Category: Astronomy Report

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 09-Jan-2019

Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope: MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: IC405 (“Flaming Star”) and Rosette Nebula. One exposure each of 180s in Blue, Green, and Luminance. One exposure of 240s in Red. One exposure of 300s in H-alpha

Problems Encountered: none

Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope: MDRS-WF
Objects Viewed: M1 (Crab Nebula), M78

Problems Encountered: one planet was close to M1 and reduced the quality of the nebula a little bit

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 07-Jan-2019
Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: Granules at the edge and in the center

Problems Encountered: None

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 05-Jan-2019
Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope: MDRS-WF
Objects Viewed: Sending photo of Horsehead Nebula observed on 04Jan2019

Problems Encountered: none

Here is the Leo Triplet (M65 bottom right, M66 top right, NGC 3628 left). Unfortunately I caught an airplane during the exposure with the red filter.

Cesare

Commander, MDRS 202

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 04-Jan-2019
Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope: MDRS-WF
Objects Viewed: M66 and Horsehead Nebula (photos from yesterday’s observation)

Problems Encountered: none

MUSK OBSERVATORY
Solar Features Observed: There were no interesting solar features. The astronomer worked on focus and tuning with both the eyepiece and the camera

Problems Encountered: none

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 03-Jan-2019

Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope: MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: M51, M81 and M82, M31

Problems Encountered: none (photos will be sent after post-processing)

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Three sunspots (two in a group), optical observation only

Problems Encountered: The first centering needed quite a large amount of manual adjustment.

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 02-Jan-2019
Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Used: MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: Messier 33 (Triangulum Galaxy)

Problems Encountered: Due to the problem with centering, the offset was set at -10.8 minutes RA, -3.5 arcmin Dec.

Cesare
Commander, MDRS 202

Crew 202 Astronomy Report 02-Jan-2019
Crew Astronomer: Cesare Guariniello

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Used: MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: Messier 33 (Triangulum Galaxy)

Problems Encountered: Due to the problem with centering, the offset was set at -10.8 minutes RA, -3.5 arcmin Dec.

To get the precise offset for that object, I did a 30 seconds exposure in the visible and used the position data to correct on the long take.

Cesare
Commander, MDRS 202

Astronomy Report

Name: Federico Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Crew: Crew 201 MEx-1

Date: Dec 29 2018

During our time on MDRS, as astronomer my main job was to make observations of different space bodies using the MDRS-WF telescope, the observations were focused on astrophotography of the next bodies:

Object	Filters	Exposure	Images taken
46P Wirtanen	RGB	60s	3
Andromeda Galaxy	H alpha	210	5
Andromeda Galaxy	RGB	60s	3
NGC7000	RGB	45s	3
Messier 101	RGB + Halpha	60s	4
Horsehead nebula	RGB + Halpha	60s	4
NGC2024	RG + Halpha	60s	3
PGC21396	RGB + Halpha + Lum	45s	5
* Horsehead nebula	RGB + Halpha	300s	4
* M1	RGB + Halpha + Lum	300s	5
* PGC27077	RGB + Halpha + Lum	120s	5

*Pending

The filters used to process the images were on most of them RGB and some of them the Halpha filter with a time of exposures between 45 and 300 seconds, after calibrating the images on AstroimageJ I proceed to give the color using photoshop based on the steps the quick guide had gave me.
The results were varied depending on the time of exposure and the filters used, but many of the images were great and I am getting experience and exciting about astrophotography.

Federico Arturo Martinez Espinoza

Crew: Crew 201 MEx-1

Date: Dec 28 2018

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: Horsehead nebula

Problems Encountered: None, the filters used to take this image was RGB.