--- In TAC-imaging@yahoogroups.com, "ancient.sull" <ancient.sull@...> wrote:
>
> --- In TAC-imaging@yahoogroups.com, "Keith Myers" <keith.myers@> wrote:
> > I don't know when I will get the patience to go that long on one subject.
>
> I use CCD Commander. I don't have a permanent observatory but use Wheeley Bars
so I can set up or take down in just a few minutes. All it takes, once I have
the CCDCommander script written is a mouse click and the sequence runs,
including focusing, plate solves and flats, for another night.
>
> I run any night that _might_ be good and wind up throwing away a lot of subs
(sometimes I just erase the entire night).
>
> But it really isn't much effort to take the same target or set of targets
night after night after night.
>
> BTW Registar (the stacking program) is another help. That will let you combine
data from different scopes/cameras/camera angles. You can add data from the
previous year for example (all the data there was from this year but with two
very different scopes).
>


Yes, I have recently been doing multiple nights gathering data for the same
target. It certainly has improved my S/N ratio. I was set up last month for 10
nights straight and the month before that for 12 nights. I have not had much
luck trying to get CCDCommander to work, keep getting errors that prevent me
from doing anything with it. So I just manually goto my continuing targets,
plate-solve and start exposing again. I haven't convinced myself yet that
Registar is an expense that I can afford. It would be quite nice to combine
high resolution images with low resolution wide angle images.

Keith

P.S. I just processed 240 minutes of Ha data for the Bubble and I really don't
think I pulled any more luminosity out of it than I did with my previous LRGB
image. I gather I still need to go a heckuva lot longer in my exposures for Ha.