Date: Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 5:33 PM
From: Howard Anderson
Subject: Messier Marathon 2011 - Imaging 108 objects

Hi Hartmut,
 
  A. J. Crayon of the Saguaro Astronomy Club suggested that I write
  and submit an article to you:
 
  
On the night of 1/2 April 2011, Howard C. Anderson imaged 108 of the 
110 Messier objects:
  http://www.astroshow.com/ccdMessierMarathon/MM.html.
 
Howard is the author of HandyAvi so, three weeks prior to the Messier Marathon,
he modified HandyAvi to fully automate the process of imaging the Messier
objects.  
 
A typographical error prevented imaging of M27.  M74 was out of the frame 
because of atmospheric refraction at low altitudes.  The typographical error 
has now been corrected.  Correction for atmospheric refraction has now been
added to HandyAvi.  
 
Images were taken with an f/6.3 Meade LX-200 "classic" with an OPTEC 
TCF-S temperature compensated focuser, an f/6.3 focal reducer and
an SBIG ST-4000XCM camera.  Maxim DL "PinPoint" plate solve indicates
that the scope was operating at f/5.61.  
 
Scope was aligned using iterative alignment:
http://www.astroshow.com/astrotip/align.htm#iterative%20alignment%20procedure
 
Images were then taken unguided.  Three 70 second images of each object were 
taken.
These images were then automatically stacked and processed using Maxim DL and
a Maxim DL script that Howard wrote.  
 
These images were taken one day before the "official" Messier Marathon 
here in Arizona so did not count in the "official" record.  The day of the 
"official" Messier Marathon was 2/3 April 2011 and it was extremely cloudy 
that night.  The automated process was also run that night but no objects were
captured because of the clouds.
 
Howard is a member of the Saguaro Astronomy Club and the East Valley
Astronomy Club both of which are located in the Phoenix Arizona area.


Thanks,

Howard C. Anderson, in Tempe AZ

Http://www.astroshow.com
http://www.AZcendant.com