Notes to the Herschel 400 Observing Program
I have pursued this program using several types of observing – visual, photographic (using my equipment), and remote photographic (using telescopes from distant locations owned by SierraStars (SSON, now defunct), and Slooh). I have made H 400 observations from several sites over many years. The details of each observation are contained in a database from which I generated my logbook for submission. I use abbreviations in the logbook for the equipment I used as well as the site from which I observed. Here is a key to those abbreviations:
Observing Location Abbreviations
CE – Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center, Elliott Trail, Mansfield, GA , 30055, 33.46230° N, 83.73423° W
CH – Slooh Observatory (Remote), Santiago, Chile, 33° 16′ 8.4″ S, 070° 32′ 2.4″ W
CI – Slooh Observatory (Remote), Tenerife, Canary Islands, 28° 17′ 58.92″ N, 016° 30′ 29.736″ W
CP – 1186 Cathedral Point Drive, Verona, WI 53593, 42.96817° N, 89.52446° W
DAV – Deerlick Astronomy Village, Crawfordville, GA 30631, 33.56016° N, 82.76373° W
MM – 2003 Mason Mill Rd, Decatur, GA 30033, 33.80493° N, 84.30770° W
SA – SSON University of Iowa (Remote), Sonoita, Arizona, 31° 39′ 56.08″ N, 110° 36′ 06.42″ W
WNSW – SSON Warrumbungle (Remote), New South Wales, AUS, 31°33’98 S, 148°98’083 E
YRS – Yanna Research Station, Kelly Rd, Albany, WI 53502, 42.78983° N, 89.43842° W
Personal Scopes
ES 102 Explore Scientific Carbon Fiber 102 mm at f/7.
ES CH Explore Scientific 152mm Carbon Fiber Maksutov-Newtonian at f/4.8
ES 127 Explore Scientific Carbon Fiber 127 mm at f/7.5
Z SS ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope 50 mm triplet at f/4.9, res. of 1920 x 1080
Remote Scopes and Cameras
S SSON Sonoita 20-inch F/6.8 PlaneWave CDK20 at f/6.8 with a Apogee CG42 camera.
W SSON Warrumbungle 20-inch PlaneWave CDK at f/6.8 with a SBIG STL6303E camera.
C1 Slooh Canary PlaneWave Instruments20″ CDK20 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8 with
a Finger Lake Instruments PL09000 camera.
C2 Slooh Canary PlaneWave Instruments 17″ CDK17 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8 with
a Finger Lake Instruments PL16803 camera.
C3 Slooh Canary Celestron 11″ Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA) at f/2.2 with
a Celestron Nightscape 8300 One Shot Color camera.
SC 1 Slooh Chile Celestron 14″ EdgeHD 1400 Schmidt-Cassegrain Catadioptric (SCT) at f/11
with a Diffraction Limited SBIG, Model STL-11000 camera.
SC 2 Slooh Chile PlaneWave Instruments 17″ CDK17 (Corrected Dall-Kirkham) at f/6.8
with a Finger Lakes Instrument Proline PL16803 Monochrome CCD camera.
Notes on the photos: The end user of Slooh and SSON remote scopes has relatively little choice regarding filters, exposure times, calibration, and such. In most cases, the Slooh and SSON photos used for this program are single luminance-only shots of 50 to 90 seconds duration. Similarly, the ZWO Seestar scope does not offer the flexibility of a more advanced (and expensive) astrophotography rig. The Seestar photos used for this program were all generated live, in camera, using stacks of 10 second exposures. Total exposure time of the Seestar photos rarely exceeded 2.5 minutes in total. Some of the Seestar photos are in color, but most appear in black and white.
Processing: I did very little in terms of formal post processing. Depending on the quality of the photo, I used Apple’s Preview program and Pixinsight to crop photos, remove blemishes, and enhance contrast, etc. In some cases, it was not clear to me which of several objects in a photo were the actual H 400 target. In those cases, I relied on one of several plate solving resources, such as the solver in Pixinsight, the online solver at Astrometry.net, or the Seestar itself, which plate solves each photo and can “mark” some objects in the photo. On occasion, I also compared my photos with those of the Digital Sky Survey (DSS).
A final note: It is perhaps worth noting that these photos are not “Astrobin”- like, “pretty pictures.” The scopes and cameras used to produce the photos are of high quality, but as noted above, the photos produced are basic. I consider these photos to be akin to what I would see at the eyepiece. Indeed, I think many of the photos reveal more than a view in a scope. So long as a photo allowed me to view, consider, and describe a celestial object, I was satisfied.