NOTES
Scopes and Cameras
In the main, I have pursued this program with the remote photographic option using remote photo services from SSON (which now appears to be defunct) and Slooh. In a few cases (e.g. Messier 31, Lunar Eclipse, etc.) I have used my own equipment. Equipment information is noted with each photo.
SSON has two observatories. They are located at the University of Iowa Observatory in Sonoita, Arizona (Latitude: 31° 39′ 56.08″ North / Longitude: 110° 36′ 06.42″ West) and the the Warrumbungle Observatory in New South Wales, Australia (Latitude: 31° 39′ 56.08″ North / Longitude: 110° 36′ 06.42″ West). I routinely ordered a single 60 or 90 second Luminance exposure from the SSON scopes.
Gemini
Scope: 20-inch F/6.8 PlaneWave CDK20 at f/6.8
Camera: Apogee CG42
Warrumbungle
Scope: 20-inch PlaneWave CDK at f/6.8
Camera: SBIG STL6303E
Slooh operates a number of telescopes around the world and I have used several of them for this project. The Slooh locations are in Santiago, Chile (Latitude: S33° 16′ 8.4″ S33.269 / Longitude: W070° 32′ 2.4″ W070.534) and the Canary Islands (Latitude: N28° 17′ 58.92″ N28.29970 / Longitude: W016° 30′ 29.736″ W016.50826). Each location has several scopes installed.
Chile 1
Scope: Celestron 14″ EdgeHD 1400 Schmidt-Cassegrain Catadioptric (SCT) at f/11
Camera: Diffraction Limited SBIG, Model STL-11000
Chile 2
Scope: PlaneWave Instruments 17″ CDK17 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8
Camera: Finger Lakes Instrument Proline PL16803 Monochrome CCD Camera
Canary 1
Scope: PlaneWave Instruments20″ CDK20 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8
Camera: Finger Lake Instruments PL09000
Canary 2
Scope: PlaneWave Instruments 17″ CDK17 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8
Camera: Finger Lake Instruments PL16803
Canary 3
Scope: Celestron 11″ Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA) at f/2.2
Camera: Celestron Nightscape 8300 One Shot Color (OSC)
Canary 4
Scope: Celestron 14″ EdgeHD 1400 Schmidt-Cassegrain Catadioptric (SCT) at f/11
Camera: Diffraction Limited SBIG STT-8300M
Canary 5
Scope: Lunt 60mm Double-Stack Hydrogen-Alpha Telescope at f/8.3
Video Camera: Celestron Skyris 236C High-Frame-Rate Video
Slooh telescopes and cameras operate on fixed filter / exposure formulas based on the type of target in question. Sometimes they take luminance-only shots and at other times they take separate L,R,G, and B photos. I used a variety of integration techniques for the photos in this program. In general, if the photo has any color in it, it is RGB or LRGB. If it is monochrome, it is a luminance shot. In some cases I found it best to turn a color photo into a mono photo in order to bring out the contrast between dark space and the objects in the field of view. In all cases, Slooh returns Luminance shots with 50 second exposures and R, G, and B shots with 20 second exposures.
NB: So far, there is only one exception to the use of remote SSON and SLOOH scopes. The final photo in the Deep Sky / Galaxies section. It is a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messiers 31, 32, and 110). It was my first astro photo, and I wanted to include it in this program.
Photo Quality
While I am quite happy with the photos I have used in this program, it is perhaps worth noting that they are not Astrobin quality “pretty pictures.” The scopes and cameras used to produced the photos are of very high quality. But the chief limiting factors have to do with length of exposure (these are very short exposures as astro photos go), the ability to manipulate filters (there is some choice in SSON cameras, but none in Slooh Cameras), and image calibration (SSON and Slooh control all of that). When I first began remote astrophotography I wanted to see what could be done in 60 or 90 seconds. As it turns out, one can get quite a bit of detail in brief exposures.
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