|
Walter's LogBook |
| October 2003 |
Overview
I'm currently running the MX916 on my Win98 machine since the USB1.1 active extension cables don't work with the P4 machine. Dome and scope are being controlled from the P4.
The MX916 is the imaging camera, with exposures for variable stars of 30 seconds at 2x2 binning (unguided). This month's session notes are below the overview section.
| Monthly Statistics, October 2003 | |||||
| Night | Imaging Time (s) |
Exposure Time (s) |
# Targets |
# Exposures |
Variable Star Outbursts/Activity |
| 10/18/03 | 6140 | 2550 | 9 | 85 | |
| 10/19/03 | 23464 | 14580 | 19 | 486 | |
| 10/24/03 | 6115 | 3510 | 11 | 117 | |
| 10/30/03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | (All sky aurora!) |
| 4 nights | 35719 (9.92 hr) |
20640 (5.73 hr) |
39 | 688 | Activity in 0 stars. |
 |
Session Notes
Sat/Sun, Oct 18/19, 2003
Session from 19:00 to 21:35. It's great to be back at the observatory again! Unexpectedly, I noticed the sky was clear at sunset (no Habs-Leafs game for me!). My new P4 powerhouse now has three working serial ports but won't talk to the camera through the two active USB extension cables! So I had to hook the camera and focuser into my PII Win98 machine and run the dome and scope from the P4 (and get ECU installed and working on the P4). (This consumed the first 45 minutes during nautical twilight!) Then it was on to more variables.
Session was from 19:00 to 21:35, by which time the whole sky was covered in thin cloud (which I could see as a haze around 2nd mag stars in the CCD images). PII clock was 115 seconds fast during the session (clock adjusted after session).
Sun/Mon, Oct 19/20, 2003 : Session from 19:00 to 02:15.
Fri/Sat, Oct 24/25, 2003 : Session from 18:30 to 20:30.
Thu/Fri, Oct 30/31, 2003 : All-sky aurora.
When I opened the dome at 18:00 I could see the sky was covered by a coronal aurora display. The display was great for about an hour (though there was some very bright green glow in the NE); later there was a lot of cloud moving in and the aurora didn't live up to the expectations that it might be the best since '89. So, no imaging tonight (all I got were dark frames).