Astro-imaging in the Ochocco's

I'm happy to report that I was able to get out for my first astro-imaging session of 2011 on July 5th. Not only that, it was in the ideal place (Indian Trail Springs in the Ochocco Mountains) and extremely good conditions (except for a lot of extremely annoying bugs). My 12V battery was too run-down after that night to chance another (the result of a long time on the shelf?), so one night was all I had.
It started out poorly, as my lack of practice set the stage for a voluminous brain fart (I didn't use my compass correctly to find Polaris). The result was that I had to tear down the equipment, move the tripod, re-level and set up again. Fortunately, that didn't take long past the time when the moon slipped over the horizon to bring on the darkest sky. After that, things went well. The three-star alignment was successful on the first try. Though I had wanted to try to improve my alignment by trying the drift-alignment technique, I couldn't bring myself to take the time with such great skies above me. It turned out that was a good decision because by the end of the night I had gotten some very nice exposures as long as ten minutes.
I imaged a total of eight objects in the span of about four and a half hours. That's too many, because the really great images require on the order of hours of exposure. I'll wait to do that when I know how to align the scope better. In the meantime, I had fun imaging a bunch of objects with the new Startlight Xpress camera (SXVR-M25C). The objects imaged were M16 (Eagle Nebula), M20 (Triffid Nebula), M22 (globuar cluster), M31 (Andromeda galaxy), M33 (spiral galaxy), M101 (spiral galaxy), NGC 7000 (North American Nebula), and the Pacman Nebula. I had imaged them all before except for NGC 7000, which is too big for my old camera to image well. With the new camera the field of view is very large and I can capture nearly the whole nebula in a frame. However, when I took the image I didn't see any nebulosity; as a result, I took only one exposure that had a satellite track through it. It wasn't until I got home and did the full processing of the image that I found I was able to bring out the nebulosity; it ended up being a pretty good (see below) given how little data there was.

M31 (below) turned out better than it ever has before, but it still pales in comparison to the images of many amateurs. Progress makes me happy though!

My favorite image of the night was the Eagle Nebula (below).
M22 (below) came out much better than the last globular cluster I imaged with this camera (October 2010 in Arizona).


The other images were pretty good, but all were a bit noisy because of the small amount of data. For the first time I used the data-logging on PHD guiding but I've yet to sort through it.
One of the really nice things about the new camera is that there is very little dark noise, such that dark frames are not even required. I did take both flats and bias frames this time and that was the extent of my image calibration.

The next step is to use some of the moon-lit clear nights between now and the end of July to go through the drift-alignment method and become well-practiced at it. I'll be going back to ITS during the period of the next new moon. I also need to work on a better, quicker way to balance my scope and I need to get some bug netting to cover my head. The bugs at ITS this last week were terrible! They were constantly flying into my face and buzzing my ears, such that I spent about as much time slapping at my head as I did paying attention to my imaging setup.

The Economic Crisis: Who is doing the right thing?

There is a war going on in Washington D.C. between ideological extremists in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The result of it is that no serious problems can be solved by our government. It is the recognition of that problem that led me to vote for Barack Obama in the last election. I saw him as a person capable of compromise in the name of progress. He is liberal in his beliefs about what is best for our country, but centrist in the way he governs. The problem is that too few in government share this approach.

Now, as we near a major economic crisis brought about by our government's history of being generally irresponsible in its management of government finances, all politicians are being put to the test.

If our government lets the deadline for raising the debt ceiling pass without constructive action, I feel there will be an economic disaster of major proportions. If the debt ceiling is raised and no actions are taken towards reducing the national debt, the near term disaster will be averted, but only delayed. At some point, politicians have to do something about the debt issue. Delaying action only will make the pain associated with the crisis worse.

The best thing that can happen is that a compromise is found that raises the debt ceiling but implements significant measures that will reduce our the national debt. If this happens, I feel the economic recovery will be given a significant boost. If no debt reduction takes place, all of the reasons for people be nervous about spending and investing will persist and we will see only slow economic growth, if not decline.

President Obama is taking flak from many in his Democratic Party for being willing to compromise with the Republicans. Those critics want to keep the programs that are the major sources of our national debt untouched and raise taxes as necessary to solve the debt issue. Meanwhile, the Republicans are being equally uncompromising about raising taxes. Experts are saying that both actions are clearly required to solve the debt issue.

In showing a willingness to compromise, President Obama is one of the few who is putting the well-being of our country and its citizens above that of his political party and personal biases. My prediction is that, if the Republicans do not compromise, the President will reluctantly let the disaster happen or go along with raising the debt ceiling and delaying the disaster. "Caving" and "being weak" would be to support a resolution that did not require the Republicans to also compromise and tolerate some increase in government revenue to address the debt issue. I do not believe the President would ever do that. If this crisis results in an economic disaster, only those congressmen and senators who had shown a willingness to compromise will deserve to keep their jobs.

The abandonment of a free-market economy is not going to happen in this country unless a major disaster strikes. Maybe that is what some Democrats are hoping for. The total abandonment of social programs by the federal government is not going to happen (look at the civil unrest that was brewing in the early 1930's and ask yourself what would have happened if the government had NOT stepped in to help). I'm sure that this is what many Republicans are hoping for. To have an uncompromising position in this current crisis, one either has to be an ideological extremist who thinks one of these things CAN and should happen, or a person whose governing principles only center around his personal interests (keeping his job, his money, his power, etc.); I am disgusted by both varieties. Keep up the good work Mr. President.