Category: Astronomy Report

Astronomy Report

Name: Salina Peña and Noah Loy

Crew: 274
Date: 02/04/2023

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (choose one) MDRS-14 MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: Star/230204/Variable star

Problems Encountered: None (I canceled pictures tonight due to overcast weather. I am continuing the calibration process of images.)

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Sun/230204/sunspot Sun/230204/prominence

Problems Encountered: None (I will attach images later)

Astronomy Report

Name: Salina Peña and Noah Loy

Crew: 274

Date: 02/03/2023

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (Choose one) MDRS-14 MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: None

Problems Encountered: None-overcast prevented any observations during evening hours. Started the process of separating images for calibration later.

Musk OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Sun/230203/sunspots

Sun/230203/solar prominence

Problems Encountered: None

Astronomy Report

Name: Salina Peña Noah Loy

Crew: 274

Date: 02/01/2023

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested (Choose one) MDRS-14 MDRS-WF

Objects Viewed: Star/230201/variable star

Problems Encountered: None

Musk OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: Sun/230201/sunspots

Sun/230201/solar prominence

Problems Encountered: The shutter issue from yesterday (01/31/2023) was resolved today and fully functioning now.

Astronomy Report

Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla
Crew: 227

Sky Conditions: Clear
Wind Conditions: No wind

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: Observatory was only used to perform the closing procedure.
Observation End Time:

Summary: Closing procedure was done. The requested pictures are attached to this report.
I removed all the images I took from the Astronomer’s computer and left the ones that were already there.

Objects Viewed: None
Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: None

Objects to be imaged this evening: None

Images submitted with this report: None

Errors Encountered: All images taken yesterday night failed. Maybe due to bad weather over New Mexico?

Astronomy Report

Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla
Crew: 227

Sky Conditions: Clear
Wind Conditions: windy

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: None
Observation End Time: None

Summary: Solar Observatory was not used today

Objects Viewed: None
Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be imaged this evening:
– Messier 51
– Messier 64
– Messier 57
– Messier 101
– NGC 7023
same as always
Images submitted with this report: None, still working on the Photoshop

Errors Encountered: None

Thank you for the tips that you gave me yesterday. I am going with the Photoshop option although I am still working on it. I may have been over-processing the images…

Crew 227 Astronomy Report 5 April 2022

Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla

Sky Conditions: Clear
Wind Conditions: Heavy winds

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: None
Observation End Time: None

Summary: Too much wind to be alble to use the observatory

Objects Viewed: None
Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be imaged this evening:
– Messier 51
– Messier 64
– Messier 57
– Messier 101
– NGC 7023
same as always

Images submited with this report:
– Calibrated image but mostly dark

Errors Encountered:
The image I get when calibrating the images looks fine. But when I open the image sequence to align them, it’s a mostly dark picture.

Astronomy Report

Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla
Crew: 227

Sky Conditions: High altitude clouds
Wind Conditions: No wind

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: 14:00
Observation End Time: 15:00

Summary: Tried to use the solar observatory this afternoon but due to the very unstable conditions created by the clouds blocking then unblocking the Sun’s view I couldn’t take any meaningful pictures.

Objects Viewed: Sun

Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be imaged this evening:
– Messier 51
– Messier 64
– Messier 57
– Messier 101
– NGC 7023
The usual suspects

Images submited with this report:
None. Had a problem with my computer this afternoon – poured some coffee on it and he didn’t really liked it, he’s fine now – so I will process last night pictures this evening.

Errors Encountered:
MDRS-WF seems not to be looking in right direction. I know that it is not entirely operational and that you are monitoring the situation so no worries on my side. I won’t use it tonight tough.
Some images failed on the MLC-RCOS16 but most of them were fine.

I have no credits left on the New Mexico Observatories. Since I will only be using the MLC-RCOS16, can I get my credits transfered?

Astronomy Report
Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla
Crew: 227

Sky Conditions: Sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon
Wind Conditions: No wind

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: None
Observation End Time: None

Summary: Went on EVA in the morning and it was cloudy the whole afternoon.

Objects Viewed: None

Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS-14

Objects to be imaged this evening:
– Messier 51
– Messier 64
– Messier 57
– Messier 101
– NGC 7023

Same objects as yesterday since every image but one failed.

Images submitted with this report:
– the only image that did not fail
– one of the images that failed, hopefully, you can notice something I am doing wrong…

Errors Encountered:

I still get the WCS Registration failed error even though the sky was supposed to be clear yesterday night.

The only image that didn’t fail was the last one that was taken. It is attached to this report.

Here are the parameters that I use. Am I doing something wrong?

Filter Length:
LoThru 60 s
GenR 30 s
GenG 60 s
GenB 120 s

I noticed yesterday night that the first images were taken at about 11 pm. Maybe it’s a bit early? Should I manually delay the observations until the objects are at maximum height in the sky?

Any suggestion is welcome.

Astronomy Report
Name: Ignacio Sánchez Casla
Crew: 227

Sky Conditions: Sunny
Wind Conditions: No wind

MUSK SOLAR OBSERVATORY
Observation Start Time: 9:30 and 14:15
Observation End Time: 12:00 and 16:00

Summary:
Today I finally was able to observe the sun with the solar observatory! I observed the sun for a bit this morning and went after lunch too. Everything went smoothly and no problems were encountered with the lower shutter, although a bit of cleaning and lubrication can certainly help.

I sent you the image of the Sun I took this evening. With a nice prominence. My photoshop skills can certainly be improved but I’m quite proud of my first image anyway.

Objects Viewed: Sun

Problems Encountered: None

MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY

Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS-14

Objects to be imaged this evening:
– Messier 51
– Messier 64
– Messier 57
– Messier 101
– NGC 7023
I saw that we will have a clear sky this evening so I will observe a lot of objects.

Images submitted with this report: None since yesterday’s observations came back with "WCS Registration failed" error.

Errors Encountered: WCS Registration failed -> probably due to bad weather over the observatory. Hopefully this evening will be nice.

Crew 227 Astronomer Report 29th March 2022
SOL: 2

Name of person filing report: Ignacio Sanchez

Sky Conditions: Cloudy and rainy
Wind Conditions: No wind but hard to tell since we didn’t went on EVA

Observation Start Time: None
Observation End Time: None

Summary: Today was another uneventful day telescope-wise. The clouds obstructed the Sun all day and the observations set for the MDRS-14 were not taken and are still shown as active. Maybe Skynet reports them because of the bad weather?
Please find attached the remaining photo. Let me know if you need any other photos.
I wanted to at least go through the opening and closing procedure of the Musk Solar Observatory but due to the rain, I cancelled the plan.

Objects Viewed: None

Problems Encountered: None