Looking at the Astrospheric forecast before I went to bed showed below average transparency and average seeing. Just the kind of conditions that Jim Tomney has talked about during the meeting. I decided to set an alarm for 0300 and then went to bed right after the meeting. This would give me plenty of time to get the scope ready an start imaging as Jupiter approached the meridian.
I woke up at about 0145 and could tell that I wasn’t going back to sleep, so I went outside and set up the telescope. The Meade was still on the G11, and I added the ASI290, filter wheel, and 2.5x PM.
Checking conditions, I could see that dew point and temperature lines were running together and that relative humidity was close to 90%,, so I correctly surmised that there would be dew. The temperature was about 63 degrees, and I was comfortable in a light jacket.
Set up, power up, and target acquisition when smoothly. I checked polar alignment and it was spot on a week after it was last checked.
I got Firecapture set up and running with no issues. Jupiter was not yet close to the meridian, but it was well out of the trees. It looked pretty good on the display and I had no issues focusing. I captured 5 RGB runs with 3ms x 380 gain exposures that gave a 67 to 70% histogram. I also did 5 CH4 runs with 50ms x 520 gain exposures. The actual captures ran from 0213 to 0228.
I went back out at 0345 to meet the Moon as it came out of the trees. I replaced the ASI290 with the ASI178. I left the 2.5x PM in to take advantage of the seeing to get my first images with the ASI178/2.5x PM combination. More dew had settled, and I found that the corrective plate was dewed from the secondary mirror housing about half of the way out to the outer clear edge. The dew heater controller had been turned all of the way up. I was able to get a decent image, so I moved on. After taking several images with this set up, I removed the 2.5x PM and took some wider field images.
No to-do items resulted from this session. I am going to get some sleep. I may begin processing this morning’s take if I wake up early enough. Otherwise, it is doubtful that I will be able to get any processing done since we are picking up the camper today.