Crackerjack (M22)

[Placidus]

This is a landmark image for us because it was taken by remote control from the house! :D

We now have a 350 metre wireless bridge between the observatory and the house. Starting up is still rather manual: fuel for the generator, remove the dust caps, that sort of thing. After that, all is done in warmth and comfort.

(In the more distant future, we'll have generator backed solar power up there, and Wake on LAN, so we can start the beast from the house. That is being investigated).

M22, or the Crackerjack (presumably because of it's resemblance to the eponymous firework), RGB, 15 minutes per channel in 5 minute subs, squeezed in between dark and moonrise.

Original image here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Clusters/i-9d56X3k/0/b9b01921/O/Crackerjack%20RGB%2015%20min%20each %20in%205%20min%20subs.jpg) is 0.55 sec arc/pixel, approx 35 min arc across, north on the left.


Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave.

Very best,
a warm and comfortable Mike and Trish.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Very cool! Cheese and crackers imaging. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RickS]

Congrats on the big advance in comfort, M&T!

[cometcatcher]

Lovely image. Beautiful colours. Now go solar! (I'm just a little bit obsessed with solar) :P

[Placidus]

Thanks Marc!



It's a tough life. But you've been doing this for ages.



Thanks muchly, Kevin. We thought the colours came out plausibly in the Goldilocks zone.

We rang a second solar power bunch today. They must all be getting too much work. They're not exactly forming a queue.

[Geoff45]

That’s a very nice rendition M&T. Nice colours and pinpoint stars. Congratulations on the remote advance.

[Imme]

Great pic guys.

I recently went remote control from the house as well and I feel your joy......best thing I’ve found with it is the ability to roll over in bed at 3am, close down the imaging run, equipment and computer then roll back over and go to sleep without having to get out of bed.

Definately get the wake on LAN thing happening....really makes life easy. I use TeamViewer to switch the remote computer on then switch over to Microsoft Remote Desktop so I’m not chewing through the data on my limited plan
How are you controlling power? I’ve grabbed a USB 8 x relay board which works an absolute treat......switches everything on/off and even closes my roof. I just had to make/wire a control box up. It gives me 4 x 240v double gpo’s and 4 x 12v circuits that can be independently controlled.

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Geoff.



Hi, Jon, :hi:

At present we run off a Honda EU30iS generator with a 2-wire remote start/stop. I designed and built the microcontroller boards that work the scope and all the observatory control software. I've included a scripting facility where we can select multiple targets, filter changes, exposures, etc.

A few typical lines might be:

Open dome
Start cameras
Synch to Alphard
Goto M83
Filter cycle RGB
Shoot M83 12 prefocus shots 30 min unbinned
Goto Trifid
Filter cycle Ha
Shoot Trifid 3 prefocus shots 60 min unbinned


The "shoot" line manages changing filters and refocus between frames.

The last 3 scripting lines are almost always:

Park
Close dome
Shut down Windows and kill generator

The Kill Generator part is done using a solid state relay with 6000 volts of isolation at the observatory end, and a self-latching relay at the generator end.

Instantly on executing that last line, the microcontroller is on it's own, running off the UPS. It waits 30 seconds to allow Windows to complete shutdown and for the generator to stop. It's last (necessarily suicidal) act is to shut down the UPS.

This all happens while we sleep on obliviously.

Now that we've got the wireless bridge, we use Windows Remote Desktop back at the house to write the script on the observatory machine. Thereafter, everything happens as usual, with the advantage that we can see what is happening, and the additional step that when the UPS powers down, the link to the house is lost and the virtual desktop shuts down.

Once we have solar, the plan is to have the last line of the script tell the observatory computer to hibernate, rather than shut down completely. The generator will be transparently controlled by the solar battery controller, not by me.

Although I've been writing (mostly medical/scientific) real time and embedded device control software for almost 40 years, I'm getting out of touch and the wireless and ethernet parts are very new to me, to the point of bewilderment, so I'm going to have to ask for a lot of help from obliging mates who like that sort of thing and don't mind my cooking :D Trish is helping with moral support and logistics.

Very best,
Mike

[Bart]

Very lovely glob guys! :eyepop:

I envy your resolution to do these1! :sadeyes:

[Ryderscope]

That’s great news that the remote control is coming together. I can definitely vouch for the advantages and comfort to be had. Goldilocks zone is a good way to describe your M22 as well with the colour and resolution being spot on.

[Placidus]

Thanks Bart. Oh, to have an observatory atop a high desert mountain. Hard to raise chooks cattle veggies there though.



Thanks Rodney!

[Stevec35]

Nice M22 guys. Congratulations on the new way of doing things.

Steve

[Andy01]

:campfire::family::scared3::ship2: :D

[multiweb]

You reckon you could run a CCTV system up there to see what the scope is actually doing?

[Atmos]

Really great cluster MnT :) :thumbsup:

[Imme]

You're a lot more advanced than i am! Sounds like you definitely have it under control.

[Placidus]

:) :hi:



We'd probably catch it up to no good.



Thanks Colin!



Jack of many trades, master of very little. A tiny step forward today: got an Arduino Mega talking via Bluetooth to the laptop. The Arduino will manage the synchronized opening and closing of the dome shutters without them banging into each other, reporting back via Bluetooth from the revolving dome to the rest of the system and thence to the house.

[topheart]

Beautiful image!
Very interesting story re the remote and automation you have done.
Fantastic to have the knowledge to write your own code for device control.

Being 3.5 hours drive away from our totally unmanned systems, I am always trying to think of better and safer ways to automate and control everything.
Congratulations!
Cheers,
Tim

[Paul Haese]

Not sure how I missed this one. Nice image with great resolution and colour. I had heard that M22 had a planetary but I can't seem to see it in your image. Am I wrong?

[Placidus]

It was useful the other night. We could see from the house that the roof shutters were still open in the morning. (A problem that occurs mostly if we have guests watching). I guessed that the problem was that the copper contacts that deliver power to the roof were grubby. I rotated the dome off the contacts and back on, and the roof closed itself in an orderly manner.

I've finished writing the code for the "new" roof shutter controller based on an Arduino. Now it's time to design a very simple Arduino shield to interface it to the rest of the system.




Thanks Paul! Wikipedia says that the planetary was discovered relatively recently (1986) by IRAS, and is "point-like". That sounds difficult for mortals. Perhaps one could find it using an OIII filter and blinking between lum and OIII.

Best,
Mike

[strongmanmike]

A nice M22 guys :thumbsup: it sits in a pretty dense star field, so a longer exposure might be interesting, if you decide too :)

Yes that planetary is hard to spot, it is here (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/161056641/original)

Mike

[Peter Ward]

What? Not freezing gonads off in dome? Sheer luxury I say. Weren't like that in my day.....:)

A cracker of a result as well. :thumbsup:

[Jeff]

Beautifully done guys!

I guess we're often drawn to gravitate to Omega Cent and 47Tuc.
Like others, I have not seen M22 done so well before.

[Placidus]

Thanks for showing the planetary, Mike!



Thanks Peter!

When I were't boy, lived in paper bag. Not an actual paper bag, but it were home to us.

(We spent a few days in York recently. The cathedral is just magnificent, as is the railway museum.



Thanks, Jeff. :)