The December 8 forecast was to be in around 32 by 9PM I decided to keep the night short. Astro-twilight was about 6:05 PM so I arrived at the town of Harvard parking dark site around 4:30PM. Setup and all star polar alignment went smoothly. I deviated from the original target list dropping M31 and NGC 1342 while adding M77 and NGC 2024. I probably should have stuck with NGC1342 instead of M77 which would be better imaged at a longer focal length. A combination of the dew hood and an ~8 mph breeze from the north challenged the auto-guider. And, having forgotten to bring my balaclava head covering the wind chill challenged my face during tear down at the end of the night. Fortunately I did remember to bring gloves and hand warmers. The five targets imaged appear below. Additional notes follow the images.
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| IC 5146 |
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Messier 33 - Triangulum Galaxy
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Messier 77(NGC 1068)
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| NGC663 |
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NGC2024 (Flame Nebula)
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All imaging was done at F/4 (800mm) with Celestron 8 AVX + Starizona Night Owl focal reducer corrector + ZWO ASI294MC Pro. Image area reduced to 3104x2116 pixels. Imaging temperature -10C. Of note, optical configuration was kept assembled and dark frames acquired the following day. Processing was with Autostakkert! I decided to experiment with acquiring dark frames with camera rotated slightly clockwise and counterclockwise from original. These were found to have little effect on post processing. For this reason I will likely acquire flat frames after the night of imaging with a reassembled optical configuration. I'll also return to the Orchard site which has less of an issue with passing cars.
