I've been trying to use T02 since it arrived in Utah, but I haven't been getting anything. Given the current size of the comet it should look pretty good, and the color camera makes it a lot easier to get a nice color image. 

Tonight I had something like one and a half hours scheduled that I had more or less given up on. But I got an email saying that my session had been started successfully! I logged in to see what was going on and found the telescope disconnected.

It had been a bit since my reservation had started, but I didn't have any images to download nor were there any log files. But I did think to see if there was preview image on the system, and there was! This was the only evidence I could find of my reservation.

   

Oh what might have been...

Hi Greg,

I created a datafile to use iTelescope T80 for Feb 6. It included a #waitfor command. I had an opportunity to grab T80 for free on Feb 5, but the #waitfor command caused the scope to stop the run. I was so excited that I got control of T80 that I forgot about that #waitfor command that the ST4i Scheduler created.

My question: how to prevent the Scheduler from adding a #waitfor command? Should I just eliminate it with a text editor?

I don't speak 'ACP'.

TIA,

Phil S.

Hello Greg

I have 60 or so targets in a list made with my old QSI camera.
I now have a ZWO camera.
This is a new installation, as my old PC died.
So, I created a new Target List with all my old QSI targets.

I now want to use Skytools in a normal generic fashion with the ZWO, but excluding previously imaged Targets with the QSI Camera.
Otherwise there would be duplicated targets.

Can you please advise how to do this?
Perhaps I am making a simple problem complicated?

Thank you
Adrien Richardson

CNEOS predicts that this large NEO will make a close approach on 2023-Feb-16 00:46 ± < 00:01 UT at a distance of 0.03073 AU. H=18.4 magnitude, V relative=24.65 km/sec, 'Rarity'=2 & Condition Code=0. This is a large object, 570m - 1.3 km so it's already 15.4 magnitude according to ST4v despite still being 0.15 AU distant. I thought that it might be interesting to keep an eye on it as it approaches.

Using MPC's orbital elements for the epoch 2023 February 5 00:00 UT, ST4v predicts that this NEO will reach a maximum brightness of 13.2 magnitude on February 14 traveling from Antlia into Vela at ~40"/min. This NEO is best visible from the southern hemisphere or below 30° N.

Here's an Interactive Atlas chart showing the predicted path of this NEO from 2023 February 11 - 17 for Brisbane, Australia:     

Note that the times shown in the OI dialog Notes are EST.

Good hunting,

Phil S.

I have released a new tutorial video for both SkyTools 4 Visual & Imaging. It explores how the Seeing selection in SkyTools affects the calculations.

https://youtu.be/xB9IjwRD0Lg

I have been struggling to find a way to make my tutorials both better and less time consuming. This one came together very quickly, and it is my hope that I have found a good formula that will allow me to make many more. I need to remake some of the basic tutorial videos, but in addition to that, I intend to create one relatively short video every week or two that will focus on on aspect of SkyTools and how it relates to observation planning. This video covers both Visual and Imaging, but I'll probably trade off for each of them in the future.

Please let me know what you think of it, and if you have suggestions for videos that you would like to see.

Today at 17:45:45UT, the small rock (2023 BJ7) made an interesting close approach to Luna at ~12,870Km. Viewing from the surface of Luna, it would have been ~12.14 magnitude moving 2.4°/min across the Musca/Apus border.

Hi Greg,

I have some images of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken with iTelescopes T14 & T19 on 2023 Jan 27. These are .fits images ~40MB each. How can I compress them to fit on the Forum? I tried using Astro Pixel Processor to convert the images to .jpg format but the image is dark. The stretched image looks terrible.

They're uploaded below.

Phil S.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
       

ST4v predicts that the NEO 2010 LK34 will make a close approach on 2023 Feb 4 0600 EST. The CNEOS & MPC websites don't have this event listed, but the CNEOS Orbit Viewer indicates a close approach within 0.027 AU on Feb 4 as does the astro.vanbuitenen.nl/neos website. Here's the ST4v Object Info dialog with additional information:     

Good hunting,

Phil S.

CNEOS predicts that the newly discovered NEO 2023 BN6 will make a close approach on 2023-Feb-04 08:30 ± 00:30 UT at a distance of 0.00514AU. H=25.2 magnitude, V relative=7.50 km/sec, 'Rarity' =1, Condition Code = 7.  This MP was discovered at ATLAS South Africa, Sutherland on 2023-01-26.

Using MPC's elements for January 30 2023 00:00 UT, ST4v predicts that this MP will reach a peak brightness of 14.0 magnitude on February 3 at 1000 EST when the NEO will be moving through Cancer at 86.5"/sec at 906.1k km distance, but in daylight & below the horizon in Columbus, Ohio. Close approach (to the nearest hour) is predicted to occur on February 4 at 0400 EST (0900 UT) when 2023 BN6 at 15.0 magnitude will be moving through Ursa Major at 115.8"/sec, 774.8k km distant. This NEO will be brighter than 15 Mag Feb 3@0100 to Feb 4@0400 EST. The Minimum Re time should get better determined in the next few days as more observations are obtained.

Here's an Interactive Atlas chart showing the predicted position of 2023 BN6 on November 17-18 as seen from Columbus, Ohio:     

Since this NEO will get very close, parallax will affect the predicted positions, so you'll need to make charts for your location to get accurate positions for this object.

Good hunting.

Phil S.

Xmas is coming in the form of version 4.1 later this year. If you guys could have one wish with SkyTools to make this process of observing close approachers easier, what would it be?

Better yet, no need to get caught up in a specific feature request, but rather identify something in the process that is clunky, time consuming, or frustrating, and let me figure out how to make it better.