Several records beaten at Observatory of Belle Etoile

The past few weeks have been very busy at the Observatory of Belle Etoile, with lot of observing hours! And several records have fallen in my history of astronomical observations and spectroscopy.


I/ First,  this third quarter of 2017 (from july to september), I have observed 45 nights for a total of 250 hours. This is my all-time record - and I am recording my observing time for more than 23 years now!

II/ Second, I reached 1334 spectra (58 in Halpha) waiting for validation - well, this is not critical but I kept the BeSS administrators busy! All have been validated now.

III/ Third, I crossed the key 10k milestone for Be stars with now 11391 spectra in BeSS. Just few days after Olivier Garde ("sans rancune", Olivier!) crossed this milestone as well... I am now 3rd in the amateur top observers:

IV/ Fourth, I have acquired 564 spectra in Halpha alone, crossing the 500 milestone and making me entering in the Top 10 of Halpha observers - a first for me. Well, the 5th position is within reach:

V/ Fifth, my observing time since I have the observatory crossed the 500 hours observing time milestone (564 hours actually). 50% of that time is actually acquiring spectra (ie: "photon time"). My best efficient night was the night of september 19th with an efficiency ratio of 87% ("observatory open time" actually acquiring spectra).
Looking at the other 50% time, here is a rough breakdown:

• 21% technical downtime
• 12% non spectroscopy time (outreach, visual observation, photometry)
• 9% opening/closing time
• 8% download/waiting time (including lost exposure due to clouds or waiting time between two individual exposures)

VI/ Sixth, I reached one millions seconds of total exposure time since I have the observatory in the backyard (1.17 millions seconds actually).

VII/ Seventh, and this is a real improvement for me, I reached three night in a raw observing remotely from home. But I still have sometimes the Atik 460 frezing at the end of an exposure, usually right after the first Thorium-Argon calibration or the first acquisition after calibration is done. It freezes after download and image is not saved; I have to physically remove and reconnect the USB cable to make it work again.I suspect a USB issue but haven't found the problem yet.
Otherwise, my only operations at the observatory are to connect the Atik Titan USB, remove telescope cover & add the anti-dew cover, power ON the Atik 460 camera and the mount at the begining & just the reverse steps at the end. Everything else is done remotely through TeamViewer (including file transfer at the end) and it works great.
An important thing is that I have done a pointing model for the Losmandy Titan mount with about 7-8 stars few weeks ago. Since then, the target is always in the guiding chip for GoTo within 40° and otherwise not very far. Pointing procedure has become very easy. I always point on the same side of the pier so that helps. But still, this is a real improvement on my setup!
Anyway, while I still have some motor lags and need to re-adjust the DEC axis (I think it is too tight), the overall the setup works very well now and I have been able during several nights to successfully take long sleep while acquiring long series of V442 And spectra for exemple.

watching Star Trek documentary during remote observation session

Spectroscopy of Be stars & remote observations rock!