For fun, I wanted to image U Camelopardalis. It is a very red star, spectral class N! And a multi-star system to boot.
I first submitted a job on Nov 21, aiming at the nearby star TYC 40660 1091 1. The Burke-Gaffney Observatory robot accepted my request and queued me up. Then two nights later, BGO had a crack at it. But as I noted, it did not gather all the data, and this time I needed all the colour data. Dang. That said, the seeing was poor and the Moon was high.
I resubmitted the request with the exact same settings (I just copied the first message). It was put into the queue again without fanfare. Happily, that evening, the automated 'scope at SMU tried again. But, sadly, I was clouded out for a second time! Brother! Still, it was Moonie.
Sent in another ask. And this time, success! Gathered all the colour data for the carbon star. Not great seeing but no Moon around. I'll take it!
For all, FITS Liberator. North is up; east is left.
Luminance only, 1 second subexposures, 12 stacked shots. Paint.NET.
Glomed together the data for the red dwarf. Wow.
Full colour processed image. LRGB. L at 1 second; colours at 3 seconds. Each channel 12 shots stacked. Total 2 minutes exposure time. FITS Liberator, Photoshop.
Look at that colour!
Also, U Cam aka BLL 12 is a double star. A, of course, is the bright orange-red furnace near the centre of the image; the B consort is to the north, above, the dimmer but still bright blue-white star. Well away (209 seconds of arc according to SkyTools). A fascinating contrast.
Wikipedia link: U Camelopardalis.
No comments:
Post a Comment