First successful remote imaging session!

Alright , not exactly as dramatic as the Apollo Moon landing but for an astroimager it does represent a significant milestone! On July 17, 2018 the first totally remote operation of Orion’s Belt Observatory took place. I was operating the equipment from Las Cruces which is about 2 hours away. The first remote session took place without any major glitches. Basically I did what I always do: open the roof, turn on the equipment, boot all of the programs up and program the night’s session, except this time I was not at the observatory location at all. I have been operating my equipment unattended using CCD autopilot for years but since Orion’s Belt Observatory was built, now 2 years ago already, I still had to be physically present to open the roof and turn everything on….until now!

The evening’s targets were M51 and M20 which I had already been working on. It was a great night for once since now we are in the “Monsoon” season in the Southwest. Really the bottom line with the remote stuff is you do not want your equipment rained on. You must have a reliable weather / cloud monitor. The Boltwood II which I am using has an audible alarm feature you can activate so if clouds appear you will be woken up so you can shut everything down. In the future I will install a scope sensor so that the main program will be able to execute emergency shutdown automatically but the sensor will prevent the roof closing until the telescope is properly parked. That’s an extra detail you need to keep in mind when operating a roll-off remotely. For a dome you can close it with scope in any position, but then there are other issues to deal with for domes! Anyway here are the key elements you need for successful remote observatory control assuming you are already able to operate your equipment unattended:

1. Decent internet so you can reliably access your observatory computer. I use Team Viewer application for remote access which is pretty good and has a lot of features. It is also free.
2. Video cameras so you can see what is happening
3. Reliable software to control opening and closing your roof
4. Internet based “switches” to turn on and off equipment.
5. Weather monitoring. I have an observatory cloud monitor that also records wind speed, humidity etc
6. All sky camera- this is not a must but extremely useful. I am very lucky to have several neighbors up here with reliable already installed cameras that I can link to!
7. Ability to cycle power on your observatory PC. If the computer locks up you have to be able to turn it off and then back on again. This is possible for contemporary PC’s by going into the BIOS on your computer and setting that option, to restart after power is shut off
8. Back up battery power for all equipment. I use UPS devices. They can email you when power goes out. They will work for a couple of hours so you can at least shut everything down with power out
9. Ability to reboot your modem. When the internet drops you’re screwed unless you have a way of restoring it. Some internet switches have an “autoping” feature that will enable rebooting the modem if it does not get a response to pings sent to the router IP address

That’s really it in a nutshell! If you are able to operate your equipment unattended, this is all you need to get to the next level. Happy remoting! Thanks for reading!

Dr Dave

Dusk on 7/17/18. Observatory roof is successfully opened remotely. This is the indoor camera

 

Outdoor camera view with roof open. The 16″ is ready for imaging!

 

This is the principal web switch which operates the equipment. All it is basically is a power strip that has an ethernet connection to your network and can be accessed via a specific IP address. Once you get in to the controller you can turn on the outlets you need to to power up the equipment. This is the “Web power switch PRO” from a company called “Digital Loggers”

 

This is a screen shot of the remote session in progress. The Boltwood II weather monitor outputs to a software program that can display the current observatory conditions shown to the left

 

All sky camera view showing crystal clear skies in the immediate area overhead with the Milky Way stretching across the sky! Courtesy of Dimension Point observatory which is owned and operated by a friend of mine up there in Mayhill. His observatory is literally about 200 yards away.

 

The executive program CCD autopilot links together all of the operations required for successful imaging operations: camera, mount, focuser, rotator etc. The session is recorded in real time so you can see exactly what is happening. Here we are in the process of an exposure of a single 15 minute HA frame for M20 the Trifid Nebula!

The first remote imaging session at Orion’s Belt has been completed!

 

And now after the session completes, the telescope parks: https://youtu.be/po1nB5qmS5k

And the roof closes: https://youtu.be/mONzt5HO9xY

Here is a sample of what we did. This is a single 15 minute raw frame in hydrogen alpha,

using a 3nm HA filter, of the Trifid nebula taken with the 16″ RiDK telescope. The project calls for a total of about 20 hours of HA, SII, OII and blue channels!

The Trifid nebula is a combination reflection and emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius toward the galactic center. This image is taken through a hydrogen alpha filter which allows only a narrow band of hydrogen emission to register thus revealing the delicate infrastructure of the emission nebula component. Looks very promising for the future result!