I enjoy extrapolating information from my CCD Commander logs, which I have dating back to 2006.
The most common statistic I keep an eye on is the number of observing sessions per month. I update this each month (graph attached).
I also regularly summarise the HFD values and look at their values at different times of the night, averaged across the year etc. On that note, I haven' found a strong correlation between time and good focus, as it seems more dependent on overal weather conditions. This is contradictory to the believe that best viewing is in the early hours of the morning after midnight, after cool-down etc.
A new set of statistics I decided to do today was analysing the number of slews. I arrived at:
- Between May 2006 and Feb 2011 my 12" LX200 Classic slewed 6764 times during automated operation.
- Between Feb 2011 and now my Paramount ME has slewed a whopping 41,255 times.
I thought that total number of slews was pretty good usage for amateur kit.
I have attached graphs showing:
- slews per night over the entire period (over the entire 12 year period)
- Average HFD/hour (with #samples/hour) (over the entire 12 year period)
- Number of automated viewing nights (since 2008)
I just find it all interesting. I look forward to discussion if anyone has comments.
For those unaware, HFD is a measure of focus quality. I have found it varies based on focal length so I wouldn't rate it as the best way to measure quality of seeing when imaging train changes at all, but averaged over years of only occasional equipment changes I think the statistics hold.
My ongoing challenge is to maximise the effectiveness of use and achieve useful outcomes. Graphing good outcomes vs use is much harder to quantify
