The eight ACP plans backing the drain-campaign booking queue: cena-t32
(Centaurus A LRGB), cra-t8 (Corona Australis dust), catspaw-t8 (NGC 6334
Ha, booked as 749230), smc47tuc-t8 (the SMC + 47 Tuc signature frame),
tarantula-t32 (NGC 2070 LRGB), ngc6188-haoiii-t59 and ngc6188-sii-t59
(bright-moon narrowband pair), scorpius-t70 (super-wide, pending the T70
server returning). All except scorpius-t70 are uploaded to their scopes
and verified byte-identical; keeping them in the repo lets any session
re-upload after scope-side maintenance wipes or for T71 substitution
re-cuts. Binning conventions: Bin1 L / Bin2 RGB on the CCD scopes (T8),
Bin2 throughout on T32 (camera is Bin2-only), Bin1 on modern CMOS (T70),
Bin1 narrowband on T59 with 600 s subs.
The Reservations Pilot app at reservations.itelescope.net is now mapped and
driven end to end: three-step WebForms flow (form GET, Refresh Plans
postback with plan+times selected which enables Confirm, then Confirm),
observatory-local times, 4-hour maximum, plan attachment causing iTelescope
to auto-start the run at reservation start, and the reschedule flag that
rebooks weather losses on the next free night. Crucial gotcha recorded: the
confirm modal returns OK even when nothing was created (first attempt
silently failed on the 4-hour rule), so verification against the grid is
mandatory.
Live reservations: 749227 (T59, NGC 6744, 00:05-03:45 SSO local 20 Jul),
749228 (T33, 47 Tuc test, 00:05-00:50 same night), 749229 (T33, NGC 6752,
00:05-00:50 following night). Ledger corrected: T59 moon discount is 0%
until 21 Jul (the earlier 25% figure came from a Utah scope's grid), so the
NGC 6744 estimate returns to ~240 pts. Monitoring crons replace the old
starter crons since the scheduler now fires the plans itself.
User decision 2026-07-18: use the full 2,638-point balance on southern
imaging, then cancel the membership before the 12 Aug renewal (GBP 32).
CAMPAIGN.md holds the plan: policy facts that force the order (points are
non-refundable and unusable without an active subscription, per support
article 142963), a three-phase allocation shaped by the moon (dark-night
LRGB now and 3-10 Aug, narrowband through the bright 24 Jul - 2 Aug week),
a per-session ledger to reconcile against account/history.aspx, the 10 Aug
data-download-then-cancel endgame, and the rule that the cancellation POST
itself is never submitted without explicit user confirmation on the day.
plans/ngc6744-t59.txt is the first paid run (T59, L 15x300 Bin1 + RGB
7x300 Bin2, ~180 min imaging, ~240 pts), already uploaded to T59 and
verified byte-identical. PROJECT.md and TODO.md updated to make the drain
the active objective for any future session.
plans/ngc6752.txt mirrors the 47 Tuc test recipe (L 4x120s, RGB 2x90s, Bin2,
~24 min all-in, inside the free daily 30 minutes) on NGC 6752 at RA 19.1811h
dec -59.9844: at RA ~19h it is well placed from mid-evening at Siding Spring
through the whole run window. Uploaded to T33's /plans/qisback/ and verified
byte-identical.
Scheduled for Sunday 2026-07-20 ~15:11 UK as an adaptive follow-up: if
Saturday's 47 Tuc first-light succeeded it images NGC 6752; if Saturday was
clouded out or the scope was contended, it retries the 47 Tuc test instead.
state/TODO.md records the dependency so whichever session fires can decide
from repo state alone.
plans/ngc104-test.txt is the ACP observing plan for the free 30-minute proof
run on T33: NGC 104 / 47 Tucanae, L 4x120s + RGB 2x90s at Bin2 (~17 min
exposure, ~24 min with overhead), modelled on the account's previous
one-click plan format (decimal-hours RA, decimal-degrees dec, #shutdown at
end). Already uploaded to the scope's /plans/qisback/ folder and verified to
round-trip byte-identical.
plans/README.md is the runbook: the T33 ACP endpoint map (status JSON,
console read, scope connect, plan upload/run, logs), the verified upload
procedure, the not-yet-exercised acquire POST with its Windows-path plan
value, the 47 Tuc run window (second half of the SSO night, ~14:00-19:30
UTC), and the step-by-step session procedure including the open questions a
first live run must answer (scope-connect requirement, abort control).
state/TODO.md tracks the test as in progress.
