On 2025’s New Years Eve weekend (29-31Dec2024), we were able to get out for a final hoorah of dark skies with a couple of clear, albeit very windy, nights at the Mills Canyon rim in New Mexico’s Kiowa National Grassland. We got to the site, easily situated and leveled the Beast, and made quick work of setting up camp. I set up both Big Bertha and the Southern Cross to take maximum advantage of the waning nebula “season” and our two nights in dark skies.
DSO-CTRL3 setup successfully!
This trip, and the CTB1 Garlic Nebula, was first light with DSO-CTRL3 controlling Big Bertha (take a look at the Thanksgiving blog ( https://beersastrophotography.com/photography-journals/thanksgiving-plan-b-and-decembers-month-long-laptop-struggles/ ) for the background on how we got to this point. Just about everything was configured correctly!! Perhaps the third time (with a detailed spreadsheet / checklist of all the SW download and configuration steps) is a charm! A few interesting, first-time running the software set-up steps or tweaks that were needed…
With the Polemaster (I used the “old” SW version), I had to do the axis rotation step as there was no “previous use.” The way that the Polemaster camera was aligned the RA and Dec axis were reversed (that has been going on since I got the RST-300 and the screw for tightening the Polemaster onto the mount’s post needs to have the Polemaster “upside down” from its normal orientation). This caused me to have to do the rotation in Dec rather than RA to get the stars to move – but it created a good axis circle and I didn’t have to repeat that step again. (Although, now that I type this, the guiding was a little rougher than the SC’s on both nights, so I’m wondering if I should move the connection plate around so that the Polemaster is right-side up the next time I use it to see if that improves the polar alignment).
The start-up and running of the SGPro sequence went great. I did have to reestablish the windows that are viewable in PHD2, which didn’t “stick” until the second time I reestablished them on the screen (not sure what I did differently, but after the second target of the night, they came up in the screen view that I’m accustomed too for the rest of the trip).
Putting the already assembled rack and pinion (R&P) focuser with the EAF autofocuser attached to it on during assembly made the focusing much simpler! The autofocuser was roughly in focus, so the routine that ran prior to plate solving came to an acceptable solution. (As opposed to the SC where I had to attach the EAF during assembly. I thought I was being smart by moving the focuser out to the position that I had marked for the ASI2400MC camera – that turned out to be a bad idea!) When I went to “fix” the SC focuser issue, I accidently connected the autofocuser hand controller to BB – and in the middle of an image – I moved the focuser to the zero position! I immediately realized my error and moved it back out to approximately where it was. I selected “Run” on the autofocus panel, which runs an autofocus at the conclusion of the current frame. I had guessed close enough to where it originally was (with the move to command) that the autofocus routine ran and got it back into focus and on its way.
The one SGP set-up that I didn’t get correct was the new version of the plate solving tab. I had loaded and selected all the plate solvers (moving them into a priority order on the SGPro equipment profile as I interpretted needed to be done. But instead of using ASTAP (the fastest plate solver), SGP used Astronomy.net – which did resolve the plate solving, but took much longer. After the first target, I went into the ASI2400 BB-RST300 G158 equipment profile and unchecked all but the ASTAP solvers (both the one I loaded and the “native” one that came with SGP) – and it worked fine the rest of the time.
I discovered when I came outside to do the meridian flip on the SC target, that I did have an unplanned shutdown of DSO-CTRL3 after it captured 34 images (during 19:31 – 22:32MST, 3hours of operation). At that point – my heart stopped and I wanted to scream “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” (okay, the word might not have been “kidding”) The “good” news – and the $929 lesson from the month’s long random shutdown issue – was an error message that came up when I powered the computer back up again: “The BIOS shutdown the computer to prevent overheating. Check to make sure the air vents are not covered.” Apparently, putting down a couple of placemats, putting the laptop into the felt-cushioned case, and wrapping it securely in a towel is too much! Interestingly enough, the DSO-CTRL1 laptop was snuggled up like that, and never shutdown. Perhaps the BIOS “upgrade” is being more cautious than necessary (BTW – I looked up the operating temperature range for the HP Probook laptops – it is 50° – 95° – a pretty small range). So, for the rest of the night where the temperature stayed in the mid-40’s (and all of the following night, when the temperature dipped to 18°), I simply wrapped the laptop in the towel – it operated throughout the rest of the night and all the following night without issue.
The reason for the big gap in data collection during the first night’s collection on CTB1 Garlic Nebula, was due primarily to the laptop power shutdown – that I discovered when I came outside to do the meridian flip on SC’s target at about 00:15MST. But there was also a delay when I restarted the sequence after powering up the DSO-CTRL3 laptop, the RST-300 mount’s GPS was completely confused. (I had also gotten a message when I powered on the laptop that a “previously connected USB device was not recognized.”) I started the sequence from the point where the telescope pointing (it was continuing to track even though the laptop had powered down – so should have been close to the correct position). But, it slewed to a location nowhere near where CTB1 was! I decided to abort the sequence, park the telescope and start from a clean sheet. When I parked the mount, it moved to a position of approximately (0°, 180°) – IAW, directly pointing at me as I was standing behind the rig! I manually slewed the telescope to the correct home position with the iHubo controller and then disconnected all the equipment. I got out the hand controller, which had indeed lost its “GPS base.” The time came up (after a short delay, but the GPS coordinates never did. I recycled power and tried again. The second time, the time came up immediately, but again the GPS coordinates never did. I was beginning to panic – if I can’t tell the mount where it is, I’m screwed! I took a breath and realized that I could establish a manually entered location and tell the telescope to use that instead of the GPS base location. I decided to try one more time to cycle the power and see if the GPS would come back to life before I did that manual location. When the power came back up in the handset, I first went into time/date to make sure that was correct – it was. Then I went to the GPS – it populated!
The rest of the trip, DSO-CTRL3 (wrapped in only a towel) worked perfectly!!
Sunday, 29 & 30 December 2024: The illusive CTB1 Garlic Nebula
The CTB1 Garlic Nebula, that I started imaging from the front patio in late October to dial in the framing (https://beersastrophotography.com/photography-journals/a-front-patio-framing-experiment/), remains a challenging and illusive target. In capturing it the first night (29Dec2024), the forecasted winds held off throughout the night until about 04:00MST. But because of the laptop shutdown, I decided to also start the night of 30Dec2024 collecting on CTB1 to have a larger data set to process. The image below (version #3 of processing it) is only the dark skies data – I’m not pleased with it. The CTB1 gallery post has all the (bad) versions of that image at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ctb1-garlic-nebula/. You may notice, that I consider the front patio version from 24Oct2024 as the best and am using it as the gallery thumbnail. I have added this to the “further collection needed, especially in dark skies” list and will continue to collect and combine (or not combine some of these most recent data) in the quest for a good CTB1 image!
29 December 2024 – NGC2264 Cone Nebula (BB & SC)
I imaged NGC2264 Cone Nebula with both Big Bertha and the Southern Cross on the night of 29Dec2024. The forecasted wind held off throughout the night until about 04:00MST. So, it didn’t affect the early collection on NGC2264 Cone Nebula, but it certainly wreaked havoc on the images that were being collected when the winds kicked up to the 25+ mph range! Especially with BB – I had to throw out all the images captured after 0408 because the mount and autoguider could not keep a steady collect and all the images were star trailey and out of focus. Both telescope’s images, their “stories” and other images previously captured of NGC2264 are in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ngc2264-christmas-tree-cluster-cone-nebula/. The image below is Big Bertha’s rendition from the New Years Eve weekend trip data.
Monday, 30 December 2024 – Big Bertha
On the second night (30Dec2024) during dinner, we decided, after a full day of brutal winds and staring at the forecast for temperatures dropping into the teens that night, that we would cut our trip short and drive home the next morning on New Year’s Eve. I decided I would make the most of the time that night, imaging three targets with Big Bertha. I hadn’t rushed to have or clean up after dinner because the crazy winds weren’t supposed to die down until about 20:00MST. I went out to take Zeus for a walk and was surprised and pleased to find that it was calm. I got Big Bertha going on her target(s) for the night first, since she was going to capture three (CTB1 Garlic, M78 Casper, and SH2-261 Lower’s) to the Southern Cross’ single target, IC 405 Flaming Star Nebula. I started out with CTB1 Garlic, as I mentioned above, because of the laptop shutdown cutting its data collection short on Sunday night. Then I switched from CTB1 Garlic Nebula to M78 Casper at about 23:00MST, after I did the meridian flip on the SC (IC405 Flaming Star). Finally, since M78 Casper set at about 03:20MST, I decided to use the hour left in the dark skies to gather an hour’s worth of data on SH2-261 Lower’s Nebula – to see if there was any colors (besides red) that were not coming out in the 1 December capture from the HCH front patio. At 03:20MST I quickly made the swap from M78 to SH2-261 to collect until both SH2-261 and IC405 set at 0430.
The M78 Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula images from both the front patio and dark skies captures are in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/m78-casper-the-friendly-ghost-nebula/. The image below is the dark skies version – which I am very pleased with – although I’m not seeing what I remember of that cartoon character in this image!
On SH2-261Lower’s Nebula, by stacking the very small data set – there didn’t appear to be any additional colors – so the image below is comprised of data captured at Mills Canyon Rim on 30 Dec 2024 and the data captured at HCH on 1 Dec 2024. The gallery post is at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/sh2-261-lowers-nebula/
Monday, 30 December 2024 – Southern Cross
After I got BB up and operating on her targets, I got SC’s sequence started and found myself in the midst of SGPro’s CW-CCW-CW-CCW camera rotation game. You know after the first back-and-forth, it isn’t going to end well! I aborted the sequence – validated that the camera was on the 90° mark and validated that SGP was expecting it to be on 90°. Then it occurred to me that I hadn’t changed the user profile from our “standard” Mills Canyon Rim K90A location to the new one that we were using “in the trees” (a difference of 200 feet!). I went into SGPro’s User Profile tab and changed the coordinates to the current location, restarted the sequence and it worked like a charm (the rotation angle from my eyeballing it to my 90° mark was off by 3.17°)! It is amazing to me that the calculations in the plate solver are that sensitive, and that it would manifest itself in camera rotation angle confusion.
Everything went well (with DSO-CTRL1 wrapped in only a towel) as the temperatures plunged to 17°F overnight. The sequence was started by 19:27MST, I came out and accomplished the meridian flip at 22:35, and imaged until IC405 set at 04:28MST.
Final thoughts (and future actions) after processing data collected during dark skies trip:
CTB1 Garlic Nebula remains a challenge. It needs to be added to 2025’s primary target list, in dark skies, during the time of the year (which I need to determine) when I can gather a full night of data.
I’m not sure what is going on with Big Bertha, that every image has “headlights” that need to be spot healed out. Perhaps the mirror needs to be clean or polish?
Other processing to do, if time becomes available…
- Data collected on 1 Dec from HCH front patio on M78 Casper were combined with the M78 Casper capture during the dark skies trip (30 Dec 2024). I processed/posted 4&6Dec2024 image and 30Dec2024 image, but have yet to process the registered / integrated image that I produced with the data gathered 1 December from HCH and 30 December from Mills Rim.
- Register/integrate NGC2264 Cone Nebula data from SC and BB gathered on 29 Dec 2024 to see how the star diffraction spikes created by BB translate into a registered image – is it cool or wonky??