blog:20251203

20251203

21:00-07:15

Jason, Pavithra, Percy

401, 433C

Astropol

Scope Camera Focus
MainPICSI2 w/ 178
FinderASI 4822465
Time Observed Source Name Filter Int Time [s] Gain Airmass Mag (filter) RA [h] DEC [deg] Source Type Scope Purpose Notes
YYYYmmddTHHMM Object Filter time gain airmass mag(V) HH DD type Scope Purpose tracking? Others?
20251203T2220 Darks r 15s 150 1 mag(V) HH DD type Scope Calibration tracking? Others?
20251203T2235 Darks r 70ms 150 1 mag(V) HH DD type Scope Calibration tracking? Others?
20251203T2236 Darks r 600ms 150 1 mag(V) HH DD type Scope Calibration tracking? Others?
20251203T2256 alpha lac r 70ms 150 1.673 3.7(V) 22h 32m 50 25 Target Scope Blazar tracking? Others?
20251203T2311 phi cas r 600ms 150 1.159 5(V) 01h 21m 50 22 Target Scope Blazar tracking? Others?
20251204T0011 GB6J0742+5444 r 15s 150 1.0715.5(V) 07h 44m 54 40 Target Scope Blazar tracking? Others?
20251203T0142 phi cas r 600ms 150 1.574 5(V) 01h 21m 50 22 Target Scope high pol tracking? Others?
20251204T0201 GB6J0742+5444 r 15s 150 1.0715.5(V) 07h 44m 54 40 Target Scope Blazar naming error, “region” added at the end of files taken in this capture
20251204T0403 GB6J0742+5444 r 15s 150 1.11615.5(V) 07h 44m 54 40 Target Scope Blazar tracking? Others?
20251204T0548 GB6J0742+5444 r 15s 150 1.18115.5(V) 07h 44m 54 40 Target Scope Blazar paused due to sky cover increase
20251203T0656 Flats r 1s 150 n/a mag(V) HH DD type Scope Calibration tracking? Others?

2145 - Finished setting up the dome equipment

2236 - Started taking Darks

2249 - Transferred the DDC Captures file to ASTROPOL_DATA Mykonos drive

2252 - pointed towards capella

2255 - slewed and Started capturing Alpha Lac

2302 -slewed to Phi Cas

2311 -started capturing to phi cas

2316 -slewed to GB6J0742+5444

2319 -it was cloudy out trying to go to next target

0011 -started capturing of GB6J0742+5444

0141 - started capturing phi cas

0200 - slewed to GB6J0742+5444

0202 - began capturing GB6J0742+5444

0330 - Alpha lac below the horizon limit and phi cas is approaching, looking for replacement calibrators

0333 - Found 9 gem and Beta Tau but because of uncertainty around the correct exposure time to use, elected to just wait 20 minutes between consecutive captures of GB6 J0742+5444. We reach ~25,000 counts at 6s, but that is a considerably larger exp time than what we have been using for the calibrators thus far.

0400 - slewed to GB6J0742+5444

0403 - began capturing GB6J0742+5444

0549 - began capturing GB6J0742+5444

0530 - capture paused, sky cover shot up considerably. Thick cirrus clouds making it difficult to view the target. Will wait an hour to see if it will clear up - otherwise we will begin shut down procedures. Photos of the sky cover can be found in the discord thread for this night. The paused captures were left in the folder C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\DDC Captures\2025-12-03_ZWO-ASI533MM-Pro_PICSI2\2025-12-04_ZWO-ASI533MM-Pro_PICSI2\GB6-J0742+5444\05_48_31

0630 - sky cover continues to be obstructive, doing sky flats and beginning shut down

have to do the skyflats - Trouble with connecting to the filter wheel, it had been plugged into the icron box, rather than the NUC. Found and redirected the lines to the NUC. Took a while to identify the issue. We took out the red usb-c cord that had been connected to the NUC. It was not connected to instruments that are being used tonight.

- Having trouble identifying targets using the GAIA script, received error messaged about the new folder that is created to hold the region files. Ian Kirn logged onto the NUC and resolved the error, but it is not clear what the reliable fix for this is. The error occurred multiple more times later in the night. The star field in question was confirmed to contain the target star, so further use of the gaia script will not be necessary for the remainder of the night.

- The 0201ET captures of GB6J0742+5444 contain a naming error. Ian probably forgot to erase the “region” designation used for the GAIA script before beginning the official captures of the target. There are too many capture files to change manually

- SIMBAD lists GB6J0742+5444 and Bl Lac to be the same object but this is untrue. The equatorial coordinates do not match up

Time Temp Humidity

2100 33 92

2200 33 92

2300 30 88

0000 30 93

0100 28 92

0400 28 85

0500 27 88

0700 28 92