All datasets acquired with Moana from DSO (Dark Sky remote Observatory), near Fort Davis, TX, USA.
The data distributed here is under Creative Commons license, attribution: “Moana Project”. If you feel like it, feel free to tag BlackRig on Astrobin so I can see your results.
The potential of what can be achieved on Moana’s Data with is showcased here.
Moana’s updates here. Or the eventful life of a remote telescope in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.
Data:
Imaging:
This section covers long exposure datasets in color and narrow band to illustrate the beauty of the night sky.
- Current targets are: NGC 6995 in SHO, finalizing a few datasets with missing frames.
- M101 with Super Nova 2023ixf in RGB.
- NGC 4565, the Needle galaxy in Coma Berenices.
- Pickering’s triangle, a detail of the veil nebula in Cygnus.
- Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy.
- Messier 97, the Owl nebula.
- Messier 94, beautiful spiral galaxy .
- Messier 105‘s group.
- M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Over 15 hours to go after the faint nebulosity, RGB and Ha.
- Details of the Rosette Nebula (going deep, 27 hours)
- Comet 2022 E3 ZTF, multiple datasets.
- M1 planetary nebula. 20 hours of color and narrow band high resolution data.
- Galaxy M77, RGB HA dataset.
- M33 Mosaic. RGB and Ha.
- Running Man of Orion. 10 hours of RGB data, bright nebula.
- Dark structure in the California Nebula, narrow band only, Ha and SII, with dark nebula.
- Thor’s Helmet, RGB and Narrow Band.
- M16 dataset: RGB, and narrow band.
- Helix nebula dataset, about 8 hours of integration, RGB and narrow band.
- Crescent Nebula, in RGB and narrow band. About 20 hours of integration.
- Cocoon Nebula, RGB and narrow band, in Cygnus.
- M78 in Orion, RGB dataset.
- M15 and Pease 1 in Pegasus, RGB dataset.
- Horse head nebula in Orion, Ha only.
- M74, a face on spiral galaxy, in RGB and Ha.
Photometry:
Datasets suitable for training, education and research in astrometry and photometry.
- Super Nova 2022wpy: dataset covering over two months of regular follow up observations for photometry.
- Super Nova 2022zut: an RGB dataset and photometry follow up.
- Wasp 36 b exoplanet transit. 98 frames of 1mn, a clean exoplanet transit dataset.
- Wasp-10 b exoplanet transit. Photometry set, 157 frames of 1mn, a clean exoplanet transit dataset.
- Wasp 107b exoplanet transit. Light curve only, as the data is a bit noisy.
- Main belt asteroid 349 Dembowska at opposition. Datasets for light curve and rotation period determination.
- Minor planet Haumea at opposition. Dataset for light curve of this very fast rotator. At magnitude 17.3, one of my dimmest object for light curve so far.
- Comet 29P, imaging and photometry sets.
Fun stuff:
Various tests and endeavors not to be taken too seriously. Like doing planetary imaging with a scope optimized for deep sky, failures with interesting lessons, etc…
- Pluto (is a planet!). Single 2mn frame.
- Planetary dataset, moon and Jupiter in RGB.
- Difficulties, defects and disappointment.
About the data:
The files have been curated (PixInsight SubFrame Selector working in conjunction with this script, and visual QC) then stripped of private information (like observatory exact coordinates) with this script. The frames are otherwise raw from acquisition.
The image parameters are as follow:
Resolution: 0.591 arcsec/px
Field of view: 45′ x 35′
Focal distance: 1325 mm
Pixel size: 3.80 um
Aperture: 254mm -10 inches
F number: f/5.3
Guiding: Off Axis Guider with QHY 5L2M
The camera is currently an ASI 1600MM, soon to be replaced by a QHY268M. The mount is an AP1100 GTO.
For imagery I use mostly gain 90 and 5mn exposure for Narrow Band, between 1 and 5mn exposure for RBG. 5mn seems to be a good compromise between minimizing the amount of disk used each night, collecting enough light, but also be short enough to avoid too many satellite trails, cloud interference or a guiding mishap ruining the frame.
For photometry, given the wide variety of target brightness, anything goes (gain, exposure time and filter) to achieve the correct exposure.
In all cases gain and exposure shall be verified from the fits header, to ensure the use of the correct calibration masters.
The filters are Baader CMOS-Optimized RGB-R Bandpass Filter and Baader 6.5nm Narrowband Ha, OIII and SII. All 36mm round, unmounted.