Sky & Telescope - October 2021 - 66

TED WOLFE (2)
GALACTIC PRAWN Located in southern Scorpius, IC 4628 passes
directly overhead from Chile. It stands out well in this 6-hour exposure
made with the telescope operating at f/5.
SILVER COIN NGC 253, in Sculptor, is a nearby galaxy best seen from
the Southern Hemisphere. Total exposure is 9 hours through LRGB filters.
delivered directly to a subscription-based file transfer service
like Dropbox (dropbox.com).
Once you've gathered all the required pieces, be sure to
test it all together at home before shipping the equipment
to your remote hosting facility. That way, you can identify
and address any weak links in your system. Test your cable
management to ensure nothing can get yanked out during
a meridian flip, and that all adapters hold tight with your
equipment pointed at any angle. When you're ready to ship
it to its final destination, keep in mind that if you choose a
hosting facility in a foreign country, you'll be charged import
duties and fees. These can be as high as 40% of the cost of the
equipment shipped.
Putting It All to Use
After everything arrives onsite and is set up, you'll need to
work out any bugs that may have cropped up. It's a good idea
to keep an operational journal to record any problems and
their solutions to avoid having to re-learn how to solve the
issue a year or two later. Sometimes an adapter loosens up or
a cable becomes faulty. Fortunately, the hosting facility has at
least one technician onsite who can help fix these problems as
they crop up during the night.
Once everything is operating smoothly, imaging with a
remote setup is a dream come true. The Atacama Desert, where
San Pedro de Atacama is located, is one of the driest places on
Earth. One client of SPACE who concentrates on variable star
research recorded usable data on 345 nights in a single year.
Here's what a typical evening with my remote telescope
looks like. I begin by booting up my home computer to check
the local weather forecast for the site. If it's clear, I log on
to my control computer using AnyDesk. An internet protocol
camera provided by SPACE monitors the interior of each
observatory and displays constantly updated still pictures
66 OCTOBER 2021 * SKY & TELESCOPE
showing the roof open and my scope in its park position. If
all is as planned, I start up the mount and camera in Prism
and begin cooling the camera. Next, I open the Automatic
Observation form in Prism and enter my imaging script for
the night. This is where I input my target, when to start the
sequence, what filters to use, and how often to perform the
autofocus command. I also adjust the autoguider parameters
(if necessary) and designate a location to store the resulting
files. I then do a short " Homefind " operation with the mount
to ensure it's pointing accurately.
The entire startup process takes about 15 minutes. Once
it's completed, I hit Go and watch as the telescope slews to
my chosen target, acquires a guide star, and begins operations.
I can then log out of AnyDesk, close my computer, and
go on with the rest of my evening.
The next morning, I reconnect to the control system and
confirm that the scope is parked and the camera's cooling
system is turned off. If all is well, I activate Prism's
automatic data-reduction routine, which calibrates all the
night's images with a single click. Once the reduced images
have been downloaded onto my home computer, I power
down the mount and camera, and log off AnyDesk. I then
stack and process the results using MaxIm DL, RegiStar, and
Adobe Photoshop.
Remote imaging can expand your astrophotography
output by leaps and bounds. Although the initial costs for
the necessary equipment and software can be substantial
depending on the gear you choose, for me the investment
was worth it. I get far more use out of my equipment than I
could here at home.
¢ TED WOLFE controls his imaging system in Chile from the
comfort of his home in Naples, Florida. Visit tedwolfe.com to
see more of his astrophotography.
http://www.dropbox.com http://www.tedwolfe.com
Sky & Telescope - October 2021

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