Some people say an image is made outta mud But a real good picture's made 'o muscle and blood Muscle and blood and zeros and ones And a brain that's fried and a budget that's done You image all night and what do you get Another dead batt'ry, a scope soaking wet Tell my friends not to call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the 'stronomy store I was born one evening when the moon didn't shine I hooked up my s-big and connected the wires Loaded Mira and Maxim and imaged 'til four I used up bits 'till there weren't any more You image all night and what do you get Less space on your drive and closer to debt The sun is a-rising and I gotta go I owe my soul to the 'stronomy store Apologies to Merle Travis & Tennessee Ernie Ford

Planning an Imaging Session or What to do when the sun is up

At the end of a good night You saw or image what you planned Your equipment cooperated, mostly You are not badly hurt You are still on good terms with your neighbors

As well as You are ready for the next night Your battery is charging You have multiple copies of all your data You can sleep soundly

A Good Night

Organizing a session Three things need to be considered Setting up your equipment Selecting Objects Viewing and imaging effectively

Organizing Your Equipment Testing new equipment Power and connections Computers and, your Telescope

Dealing with New Equipment Always test before heading out Test when the stores are open Do not let it be the single point of failure Know that it never works as advertised

Battery Power You can never have enough Cold (<10 C) greatly reduces battery life Take a second battery, they’re light! Have a plan to move to another source

Computers/PDAs/Goto Boot okay, NO untested software! For portables, spare batteries and power adapters Plenty of disk space – Comet videos are BIG! Keep them warm, no sudden temp changes

Eyepieces and Cameras When was the last time you checked your eyepieces? Windows clean, filters clean and moving smoothly You did pack ALL your cables, right? Rigidly attached, no set screws!

Your Telescope Balance, way more important than you think Dec axis should be balanced RA slightly heavy to the east Careful when removing those Naglers or camera Cable forces can change

Managing Telescope Accessories To focal reduce or not. Just remember which. Is your motorized focuser really working? Guide scope/finder aligned with scope Once around to tighten it down

It’s Dark, Now What? Pick an object, any object Use your scope visually? Panic? Execute your “Objects to Image” plan!!!

Objects to Image Plan Keys to optimizing your dark time Plan ahead – That is what daylight is for Stick to the plan, but be ready to be flexible Be realistic – Not every night is a Messier Marathon

Selecting Objects Determine what you want to view or image Galaxies, Nebula, Clusters, Double’s, Nova, Comets? Make a master list of all the objects you want Make a list first, then use your criteria for selection Size, brightness, location

Selecting Your Images - Size Pick images that match your ‘scope and camera We all want to see NGC 6826, but it’s pretty small

Selecting Your Image - Brightness Pick objects that you can actually see NGC 1560 looks big and bright in The Sky… 4 hours later

Location, Location, Location NGC 5128 is a neat looking galaxy But it is only 1 degree above my home horizon! NGC 253 is way higher, sort of Wait until it gets near transit, be patient What about the Cocoon Nebula? You Bet!

Tools to Help You Select All sorts of software - unfortunately Web based tools – difficult in the middle of nowhere What did your buddy do last time out? Recent issues of magazines

Tools for planning NGCView, DeepSky 2000, Sky Tools, Cartes du Ciel TheSky, Guide, RealSky, DSS, Atlases Great for filtering and optimizing dark sky time Useful for getting an idea of the size, guide star, reality check

Selection Tools NGCView Sky Tools

Framing Tools TheSky Wide View TheSky CCD View

Sanity Check Tools Vickers CCD AtlasSTScI Digitized Sky Survey

Make a List, Check it Twice Iterate and come up with a nice # of objects for imaging or viewing Use NGCView or SkyTools for selecting from list Use TheSky to check for size, guide stars, bloomers Use Atlases to see what the images really look like Start thinking about exposure times Watch for transit time Start framing the image

An Evening’s Wish List Cocoon NGC 891 NGC 253 Horsehead NGC 256 M1 Helix Neb NGC 7814 IC 342 Note how short the list is. Take time to enjoy the objects

NGC 891 Plan NGC 891 Finish before meridian flip Note that camera must flip Image from 10:30-2:00

Focus Philosophy Focus early, focus often Temp C RoboFocus Each Robofocus unit is 0.001” - For my refractor, the depth of field is about +/-.003” ( )/( ) =.0025”/C

Pay attention to cabling Cables change the forces on the mount as the scope moves through the sky. They also are way too easy to trip over

Are You Practicing Safe Storage Take the time to copy data over as soon as possible A great reason to have two computers around when you are imaging Allows you to process while you are imaging

Organizing an Imaging Session - Summary Make sure your equipment is well behaved Construct a well thought out list of objects Optimize your dark sky time by planning ahead

I was born one morning, it was cloudy again Deconvolution was my middle name I was raised in a lab by an old Fortran man Said, "ain't no such thing as have'n too much RAM" You image all night and what do you get Lights, darks and flats; all are well met The rain is a-coming so I'd better go If I don't get to work they'll show me the door If you see me exposing, better put out the lights A lotta men didn't, and it just don't seem right One scope doing film, the other making bits If the emulsion don't get you, then the silicon will You image all night and what do you get A gig worth of images and you are all set The imaging's over and I gotta go Been gone a whole week - there's a big lawn to mow