Fun facts

Chamaeleon constellation: Chamaeleon is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. It is named after the Chamaeleon, a kind of lizard. It was first defined in the 16th century.

STARS: There are four bright stars in Chamaeleon that form a compact diamond-shape approximately 10 degrees from the south celestial pole and about 15 degrees south of Acrux, along the axis formed by Acrux and Gamma Crucis. Alpha Chamaeleontis is a white-hued star of magnitude 4.1, 63 light-years from Earth. Beta Chamaeleontis is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 4.2, 271 light-years from Earth. Gamma Chamaeleontis is a red-hued giant star of magnitude 4.1, 413 light-years from Earth. The other bright star in Chamaeleon is Delta Chamaeleontis, a wide double star. The brighter star is Delta2 Chamaeleontis, a blue-hued star of magnitude 4.4. Delta1 Chamaeleontis, the dimmer component, is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 5.5. They both lie about 350 light years away.

DSOs: In 1999, a nearby open cluster was discovered centered on the star η Chamaeleontis. The cluster, known as either the Eta Chamaeleontis cluster or Mamajek 1, is 8 million years old, and lies 316 light years from Earth.

The constellation contains several molecular clouds (the Chamaeleon dark clouds) that are forming low-mass T Tauri stars. The cloud complex lies some 400 to 600 light years from Earth and contains tens of thousands of solar masses of gas and dust. The most prominent cluster of T Tauri stars and young B-type stars are in the Chamaeleon I cloud, and are associated with the reflection nebula IC 2631. Chamaeleon contains one planetary nebula, NGC 3195, which is fairly faint. It appears in a telescope at about the same apparent size as Jupiter.
{From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaeleon}

Chamaeleon II – Haast Eagle and Possum Nebulae:  In Eastern Chamaeleon, south of the constellation Musca, we find Cha II.  The nebula complex is riddled with Bok Globules like dark nebulae that seem to have starless cores at this time, but these could eventually ignite at a later stage.  These non-catalogued dark nebulae are extremely difficult to observe even with the largest amateur apertures. Photographically the dark objects contrast nicely with the steely grey dust clouds in this area. 

From these scattered blobs emerges another tale of predators and prey.  At the northern-most end of this nebula group lurks the shadowy silhouette of a bird of prey.  We have bestowed the descriptive name of the Haast Eagle on this bird.  The Haast Eagle, now extinct, was the largest eagle that ever lived.  Its wingspan was similar to modern golden eagles but it was body size that made this bird so great. 

Why did we choose the Haast Eagle?  Not just because of its great size but also because of its prey, the largest bird that ever lived, the Moa!  It just so happens that a few degrees south-west, surrounding the star Beta Chamaeleontis, we have a nebula that strongly resembles the ancient Moa. These two nebulae sit in an area of about ten square degrees.

South-east of the Haast Eagle we find a small bunch of rounded dark spots, some oval and other pointed at one end.  Not one of the most popular marsupials in southern hemisphere forest, we have nonetheless immortalized the Possum, seen here climbing down a tree, in the night sky. 
{From: Imaging the Southern Sky; Stephen Chadwick and Ian Cooper; pp. 269-271}

Distance: 1600 light years
Apparent dimensions: (Field size of Chadwick&Cooper images) Haast Eagle and Possum Nebulae: 2.1° x 1.5°
Constellation: Chamaeleon
Other Designations: Chamaeleon Molecular Cloud Region
{From: Imaging the Southern Sky; Stephen Chadwick and Ian Cooper; pp. 269-274}

Capture & Processing Notes

This was the first image captured during my 2026 Atacama Desert astrophotography trip. After a good night sleep following the 2-day long travel debacle, I got up and assembled all my equipment.  We went to San Pedro de Atacama for a bit of touring, souvenir shopping, and lunch (including our second Pisco Sour).  

Getting home from our time in San Pedro de Atacama, I updated the computer for the Southern Hemisphere – changing the time zone on the laptop.  Went into NINA, changed the time zone and updated the SC420-Atacama profile location’s lat/long to the exact site where the telescope was sitting (Longitude: -22° 57’ 14.30” (-22.953972)/Latitude: -68° 10’ 41.70” (-68.17825)).  More importantly, updating the elevation to its proper 7997.2 feet (2437.55m).  Set the 3-point polar alignment in the imaging tab to Alt/Az of:  -22° 57’ 14.30”/ 180° 0’ 0”.  I settled on the target for the night – Chameleon II’s Haast Eagle and Possum Nebulae – and updated the SGP equipment profile and user profile. 

At about 1800, I went out to do the actions with the mount to convince it that it was in the Southern Hemisphere: changed the time/time zone; (which I need to flip with the GPS on the new location checklist); acquired the position in the GPS. 

At about 1945, I went out and connected all the cabling and power, then waited (semi-patiently) until 20:30 for it to get dark enough to start.  At 20:25, I started up NINA and did a test of connecting all the equipment – that worked perfectly.  At 20:28, I began the polar alignment.  The mount correctly slewed to point toward the Southern Pole Star (Sigma Octantis/Polaris Australis) – HALLELUJAH!!  Took three images (again with no move in-between).  The first run of the 3-point polar alignment was:

	Azimuth Delta	Altitude Delta	Total Delta
Start	0° 43’ (left/east)	-01° 12’ (down)	01° 24’
Finish	0° 6’ (left/east)	0° 4’ (down)	0° 8’

I reran 3-point polar alignment a second time (when Alyn came to visit during the afternoon, he made a comment about always running it twice.   The second run of the 3-point polar alignment was:

	Azimuth Delta	Altitude Delta	Total Delta
Start	0° 5’ (left/east)	0° 7’ (up)	00° 08’ 53”
Finish	0° 01’ 33” (left/east)	0° 01’ 42” (down)	0° 02’ 17”

Satisfied that I would be able to find (if I stared long enough) the template of stars surrounding the pole star in the Polemaster FOV, I disconnected and turned off NINA and connected the Polemaster.  I brought both Polemaster #1 and #2, using #1 and its original cable – I got an error when I attempted to connect.  I tried twice and then switched to #2 cable – that worked fine.  It took me a bit of time (a couple of minutes) to find the template of stars and one hunt and peck where I picked the wrong star in the template.  But the second hunt and peck resulted in the correct pole star.  The Polemaster program made me do the rotation axis verification, so I had to reconnect the mount to the hand controller to do the rotation.  When I finally got to the point of moving the mount to put Sigma Octantis/Polaris Australis into the center of the rotating circle it was tangent to it!!  YEAH.  I did that small adjustment and fine adjustment, and disconnected the Polemaster and put it away. 

I reconnected/powered the equipment and started the SGP sequence for ChaII at 21:12 – 44 minutes from cold start to polar aligned in the Southern Hemisphere with their invisible pole star (direct quote from Dylan O’Donnell)!!  A new land speed record for me!

The SGP sequence start up all went well: EAF#1, plate solve with a 2.10° delta from the plan’s 90°, autoguider calibration, EAF#2.  Event 1, Frame 1 of ChaII Haast Eagle & Possum started at 21:21.

As I lay in bed doing the math on how much time I was spending on this one target (and checking on it several times, losing the debate with myself that all would be fine), I decided that when I went out to do the meridian flip at 02:47, I would switch to the LDN1776 Pipe Stem and Bowl dark nebulae. 

Sequence plan: Gain 158, Offset 30, Temp 0°C; 61×5 min, 305min (5:05hrs); Collected 15Mar2026, 21:21 Chilean Daytime Time (CDT) – 16Mar2026, 02:53CDT.

Processing summary: Captured in SGP, stacked tiles in APP (Adaptive Airy), star removal with Starnet++, processing with LR/PS

Equipment

Equipment: All equipment controlled by HP Probook (DSO CTRL1) running Sequence Generator Pro v4.4.0.1441.  

• Imaging (ASI2400-SC420):  ZWO ASI2400MC imaging camera; (Southern Cross) Askar FRA600 108mm; f/5.6 Quintuplet Petzval Flat-Field Astrograph with Askar 0.7x reducer for FRA600
• Mount: Rainbow Astro RST-135E (controlled by iHubo ASCOM driver)
• Polar alignment: QHYCCD camera (controlled by Polemaster for polar alignment)
• Autoguiding:  Orion 60mm Multi-Use Guide Scope with ZWO ASI120MM mini mono camera (controlled by PHD2)
• Autofocuser: ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser (EAF-5V-STD) 

Summary

Captured: 15 March 2026; 21:21 Chilean Daylight Time (CDT) – 16Mar2026, 02:53 CDT.  61×5 min, 305min (5:05hrs).
Shooting location: San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations (SPACE) Atacama Lodge, Chile
Equipment: ZWO ASI2400MC imaging camera; (Southern Cross-420mm) Askar FRA600 108mm; f/5.6 Quintuplet Petzval Flat-Field Astrograph with Askar 0.7x reducer for FRA600 on Rainbow Astro RST-135E mount
Processing summary: Captured in SGP, stacked tiles and then mosaiced in APP (Adaptive Airy), star removal with Starnet++, processing with LR/PS

---

Previously captured images of Chamaeleon II Haast Eagle & Possum Nebulae

Capture & Processing Notes

This image was captured during my 2025 Atacama Desert imaging trip. It was captured on Saturday night before Jan and Dave’s departure for Patagonia and a drive to the Calama airport early in the morning to drop them off.  I went back to the Chamaeleon constellation targets because they are up all night, with a single meridian flip in the early morning hours (in this case 01:48), then didn’t set until after astronomical twilight began (i.e., I could let the sequence run while we were gone on the drive to the airport).

Captured as a 2-tile mosaic with the Haast Eagle & Possum and Thumbprint & Talon together in the mosaic.  Again, as with the Rippling Flames & Moa 2-tile mosaic, I could switch between tiles and do the meridian flip in a single step.  Not only was this important from the perspective of letting the sequence run while we were away, but it minimized the number of wake-ups during the night – the night following the 6+ hour polar alignment adventure (?) on Friday night when I got virtually no sleep because I was so frozen that when I did finally get to bed (~0300), I couldn’t sleep. 

I conducted the RST-135E hand controller actions before dark (including ensuring I had the Southern Hemisphere parking location selected and stored in the mount’s firmware (spoiler alert – it STILL parked facing to the west every time!). 

When it got dark enough (I thought) to start the polar alignment – I learned one more lesson about polar aligning in the Southern Hemisphere.  Unlike our lovely bright Polaris, that you can polar align to during civil twilight, to align with Sigma Octantis (σ Oct) or Polaris Australis one must wait until astronomical twilight has fully set in (i.e., it’s dark, dark) so that the gain and exposure time on the Polemaster software can be turned to almost the maximum (300ms, 90 gain) so that you can see the stars making up the trapezium with σ Oct clearly on the screen.  Once I was “patient enough” (?) to wait that long (until about 20:30CDT), I found the stars making up the Southern Hemisphere Polemaster template and successfully completed the polar alignment!  I disassembled the Polemaster camera, stowed it, and connected the cabling; getting the SGP sequence actions started at 20:48CDT.   The rest of the sequence start-up went well with the first subframe capture starting at 20:57CDT…and went inside to join Jan and Dave for a glass of wine to toast their next leg of their adventure and the fun that we’d had together on this leg.

At 01:48, I got up to do the meridian flip and switch to tile#2.  The sequence had completed 55 subframes on tile#1.   I was satisfied with that amount of data (on the Haast Eagle & Possum) so I executed the plan of flipping and switching by ending the sequence, disconnecting equipment, recycling power, deselecting tile#1, and restarting the sequence on tile#2 for the rest of the night. 

I got back from the run to the airport at 07:44CDT and completed the calibration frames, packed up the cabling, and wrapped SC in her daytime garb (Danita’s covers and a white tablecloth to protect her from the Atacama desert sun.

Sequence Plan (29Mar2025): Gain 158, Offset 30, Temp 0°C;
Tile#1: 55x5min. Captured 29Mar2025, 20:57CDT – 30Mar2025, 01:55CDT.  Total: 4:35hrs.
Tile#2: 50x5min. Captured 30Mar2025, 02:08CDT – 06:40CDT.  Total: 4:10hrs.
Mosaic: 105x5min. Captured 29Mar2025, 20:57CDT – 30Mar2025, 06:40CDT.  Total: 8:45hrs.

Processing summary: Captured in SGP, stacked tiles and then created mosaic in APP (Adaptive Airy), star removal with Starnet++, processing with LR/PS

Equipment

Equipment: All equipment controlled by HP Probook (DSO CTRL1) running Sequence Generator Pro v4.4.0.1441.  

• Imaging (ASI2400-SC): ZWO ASI2400MC imaging camera; (Southern Cross) Askar FRA600 108mm f/5.6 Quintuplet Petzval Flat-Field Astrograph
• Autofocuser: ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser – Standard (EAF-5V-STD)
• Mount: Rainbow Astro RST-135E (controlled by iHubo ASCOM driver)
• Polar alignment: QHYCCD camera (controlled by Polemaster for polar alignment)
• Autoguiding:  Orion 60mm Multi-Use Guide Scope with Orion StarShoot AutoGuider Pro Mono Astrophotography Camera (controlled by PHD2)

Summary

Captured: 29Mar2025, 20:57CDT – 30Mar2025, 06:40CDT.  Total: 8:45hrs
Shooting location: San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations (SPACE) Atacama Lodge
Equipment: ZWO ASI2400MC imaging camera; (Southern Cross) Askar FRA600 108mm; f/5.6 Quintuplet Petzval Flat-Field Astrograph on Rainbow Astro RST-135E mount
Processing summary: Captured in SGP, stacked tiles and then mosaiced in APP (Adaptive Airy), star removal with Starnet++, processing with LR/PS