The previous commit asserted that the 21 Jul Centaurus A data came back
with a saturated nucleus, and booked a short-exposure core set on T32 to
fix it. The assertion was wrong.
It came from taking the maximum pixel inside a 300 x 300 px box centred
on the frame. That measures the brightest thing near the middle of the
image, which is not the same as measuring the galaxy. The 65313 ADU
belonged to a foreground star 128 px (69 arcsec) from the nucleus, well
inside the box. Median filtering the inner 800 x 800 px to remove stars
leaves the galaxy peaking at 1944 ADU, roughly a thirtieth of the clip
level, with not one star-free pixel above 30000 ADU anywhere in that box.
The brightest pixel in the whole frame is at the right-hand edge, 2370 px
from centre.
The core looked blown in the processed image because of the stretch, not
the sensor: the white point sat at the 99.995th percentile, a level set
by field stars, so the galaxy's entire range from a 7 ADU sky to a 1944
ADU peak was compressed into the top few percent of the tone curve.
Re-rendering the same frames with a second curve scaled to the galaxy
recovered the core completely, with no new data.
The T32 reservation has been cancelled without running, so it cost
nothing. The other three reservations were verified intact afterwards
and quota is back to 6:05 of 8:00. plans/hdrcore-t32.txt stays in the
repo and on the scope: 47 Tuc and the SMC may genuinely saturate, a
dense cluster core being the fastest thing there is to clip, and the
ladder is ready if they do.
The corrected habit is recorded in CAMPAIGN.md: measure whether a core is
saturated before buying time to fix it, filtering stars out of the
measurement first. The check takes a minute and would have saved this
whole detour.
TODO.md also records a second result that affects future planning: the
faint outer halo of that stack is limited by the sky-plane subtraction,
which absorbed about 17.9 ADU/px of real halo light, rather than by
exposure time. More integration alone would not have gone deeper.
Processing the 21 Jul Centaurus A data showed the nucleus is saturated: a
single 300 s luminance sub reads 65313 ADU in the core, so the deep stack
is clipped there and the core cannot be recovered by processing. The only
fix is more data at shorter exposures.
plans/hdrcore-t32.txt is that data: L 8x60s, 8x15s and 8x5s plus RGB
5x30s, all BIN2 so the frames register against the deep stack without
rescaling. The ladder spans a factor of 60 below the 300 s subs, which
covers the unknown true peak of the nucleus, and the RGB gives the core
its colour. 18.2 minutes of imaging, about 25 points.
Uploaded to T32 and verified byte-identical, then booked for the evening
of 22 Jul, 18:50-19:50 SSO local, which is the same window in which the
deep run actually succeeded (T32 has a 35 degree elevation floor and Cen A
is an evening target). Verified in MySummary; quota now 7:05 of 8:00.
The wider point is recorded in CAMPAIGN.md: bright targets need a short
set budgeted alongside the deep run. NGC 6744 has already been shot
without one, and 47 Tuc and the SMC in queue #5 will certainly need one,
a globular cluster core being the fastest thing there is to saturate.
Cen A (reservation 749302, T32) completed at 11:16 UTC, 34 minutes early
because the plan finished, not because of a fault: NGC5128 images are on
t32.itelescope.net:8032 and transaction 851344 billed 160 points. Balance
is now 2,097 of the original 2,638.
That second bill settles the billing question the 20 Jul note left open.
T32 billed 160 for a 120 min plan (2.00 h x 80) and T59 billed 381 for a
180 min plan (3.00 h x 127); both land exactly on the plan's exposure
total and neither lands on wall-clock time. So billing is per imaging
minute as originally documented, and the x1.6 wall-clock multiplier is
withdrawn from CAMPAIGN.md, TODO.md and NOTES.md. What is actually wrong
is the rate card's per-scope numbers, so each scope's rate now has to be
derived from its first real bill. The practical consequence is the
opposite of the old warning: the campaign is now heading to UNDER-spend
by roughly 800 points, so later planning sessions should add or lengthen
runs rather than trim them.
Queue #2 (Corona Australis on T8) is booked at last. The original
01:35-04:35 slot was confirmed dead by probing New.aspx, which answered
"Conflicting reservation. Start time must be later than 2:25 AM" (user
hajo's reservation 749207, exactly as the previous session predicted).
Rather than take the leftover 02:30-05:30, where the target sits 3.5 to
6.5 hours past the meridian, the run moved to the next night's evening,
2026-07-22 21:45 to 2026-07-23 00:45 SSO local, which brackets the ~22:30
culmination so all 115 minutes of imaging happen near the zenith. This is
the geometry of the previously rejected option (c) on the night of option
(b): (c) was only rejected because Cen A held the reservation quota, and
that expired when Cen A completed. Verified via Reservation/MySummary.aspx;
quota now 6:50 of 8:00.
The New.aspx probe is documented in plans/README.md as the way to test a
slot for conflicts, since the DayPilot grid renders client-side and shows
nothing to a plain HTTP fetch.
- Session ran early (08:48 UTC, before Cen A 749302's 08:50 UTC start), so this
round did only the time-sensitive, unblocked work.
- Free T33 47 Tuc retry booked and grid-verified as reservation 749314
(night of 21 Jul SSO, 00:05-00:50, runs 14:05 UTC). Third attempt: the two
prior free reservations expired unused, so if this one also fails to run the
issue is free-scope auto-start, not the booking.
- Cen A (749302) verify deferred: had not run yet; runs 08:50-11:50 UTC.
- cra-t8 (queue #2) deferred, blocked twice: quota held by Cen A until ~11:50
UTC, AND user hajo holds T8 00:25-02:25 SSO local that night (res 749207),
overlapping the planned 01:35-04:35 slot. Documented resolution options;
preferred is slipping cra-t8 one night to 2026-07-23T01:35 to dodge the
conflict and keep Corona Australis near culmination.
- Scheduled job ae3af497 (~12:13 UTC) will verify Cen A and book cra-t8 against
a live grid re-check.
- Reservation 749302 created and grid-verified: T32, night of 21 Jul SSO,
18:50-21:50 local (08:50-11:50 UTC 21 Jul), plan cena-t32.txt, est ~350 pts
at the corrected x1.6 rate with 25% moon discount (46% moon ~30 deg away).
- The original queue slot (00:35-03:35) was an astronomy error: T32 has a
35 degree elevation floor and Cen A culminates ~17:10 SSO local in late July,
sinking to ~11 degrees by midnight. Evening is the only viable window; noted
in the ledger so the mistake is not repeated.
- Reschedule flag confirmed to never stick (second booking posting
RescheduleCheckbox=on that renders as No in the grid): every reservation is
one-shot, verify the morning after.
- Quota math recorded: 5h20m of 8h held; queue #2 (cra-t8) plus the free T33
47 Tuc retry must wait for the Cen A run to release its 3h (~11:50 UTC
21 Jul). Full remaining queue at corrected rates ~2,530 vs 2,257 balance:
Phase 3 needs a ~270-point trim once real bills confirm the rate model.
- T59 NGC 6744 (reservation 749227) ran 00:05-03:30 SSO local 20 Jul and billed
381 points (txn 851148), not the ~240 estimated. Full LRGB dataset verified on
the scope server (L 15x300s BIN1, R/G/B 7x300s each BIN2); preview JPEGs
checked: round stars, clean galaxy, no weather damage, so no refund claim.
- Rate correction in state/NOTES.md: history 'Time Used' equals wall-clock
session time (3h24m32s), and the effective rate was ~112 pts/hr wall /
~127 pts/hr exposure vs the 80/hr the UpdatePlan rate card predicted. All
existing queue estimates flagged ~1.6x low until more bills confirm the model.
- Both free T33 reservations (749228 47 Tuc, 749229 NGC 6752) expired unused:
no images, no logs; grid shows reschedule=No despite the flag being set at
booking. First-light test is still outstanding; plans remain uploaded on T33.
- Ledger, booked-reservations table and queue updated: balance verified 2,257
via GetAccountStatus; queue #1 (Cen A T32) missed its 21 Jul slot and needs a
new night.
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.
The UpdatePlan page embeds each telescope's dark-of-moon base rate in a
data-default-rate attribute; effective rate = base x (1 - plan
AccessDiscount from DataService.svc/GetMyAvailablePlans) x (1 - moon
discount from a server-side illumination table, not yet extracted). Records
the computed Plan-40 rates for all 25 listed scopes, the billing model
(points per imaging hour, billed per minute of exposure time, overhead
unbilled), the walk-in rule (idle scopes need no reservation; the ACP flow
is identical to the free scopes with points deducting), and the Cloudflare
constraint on the reservation planner.
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.
Records verified findings from a credentialed read-only recon of the
iTelescope portal (2026-07-18) in state/NOTES.md: the WebForms login flow,
the /DataService.svc JSON endpoints (GetAccountStatus, GetMyAvailablePlans,
ApplyPromoCode), the per-telescope ACP web servers behind HTTP auth
(tNN.itelescope.online / tNN.itelescope.net:80NN, confirmed on T33), the
Planner redirect to lookup.itelescope.online, and the per-site weather URLs.
Credentials themselves stay outside the repo.
state/TODO.md gains the next automation steps (map ACP endpoints, explore
the new planner, enumerate more DataService methods) and a campaign-impact
note: most Chile scopes plus several others are currently offline, including
recommended T71 and T73, so near-term work should target T33/T8/T32/T59 at
Siding Spring and status must be re-checked before any booking.
Adds TARGETS.md, a target guide for the southern iTelescope sites (Siding
Spring Q62, Deep Sky Chile X07) built around UK visibility: from lat 51.5°N
anything below dec -38° never rises and dec -25° to -38° culminates under
~15° altitude. Targets are tiered accordingly (never visible vs hopeless),
grouped by region (Magellanic Clouds, Carina/Crux, Centaurus, Ara/Scorpius
tail, far-southern galaxies, SNR/planetaries), and each is matched to the
best scope from TELESCOPES.md with the field-of-view reasoning in the notes.
Includes a seasonal booking calendar (evening sky by quarter from the
southern sites, with the Q62 30-35° minimum-elevation caveat), a suggested
first campaign for July-August (free T33 globulars, T71 narrowband on Ara/
Scorpius, T73 on NGC 6744, then T8 on the Magellanic Clouds in Oct-Nov),
and cost-shape notes (fast scopes for nebulae, dark-of-moon for LRGB).
README links the new guide; state/TODO.md records the addition.
Adds TELESCOPES.md, a per-observatory review of every telescope on the
iTelescope.net network with a spec block and an assessment for each, a
'choosing a telescope' use-case table, and general observations (CCD to CMOS
migration, Bin2 software limits, elevation limits, network-side calibration).
Data sourcing:
- data/itelescope-telescopes.csv is a verbatim CSV export of iTelescope's
maintained specs Google Sheet (24 rows: 23 active scopes + T74 placeholder).
- The support article (Freshdesk 247371) supplied observatory groupings and
minimum elevation limits; it still lists T9/T19/T31/T69 which the sheet has
dropped - the review follows the sheet and records the discrepancy.
- go.itelescope.net is an authenticated app shell; nothing was scraped from it.
Also fills in the remaining state/ files: TODO (pending: T74 specs, retired
scope reconciliation, periodic sheet refresh), DECISIONS (source-of-truth
choice, single-document structure, no launchpad scraping), NOTES (refresh
command, CSV quirks), ARCHITECTURE (repo layout), and README.
Repo created for a reference/review of the iTelescope.net remote telescope
network. This commit copies the Default Workflow in (CLAUDE.md and docs/ from
the Default-Workflow repo), adds a .gitignore (secrets and scratch), and fills
in state/PROJECT.md with the objective: review every telescope on the network
and provide a choosing guide, using only public sources (support article and
the maintained Google Sheet; the go.itelescope.net launchpad is login-only).
