itelescope/CAMPAIGN.md

Drain campaign: spend 2,638 points, then close the account

Decision (2026-07-18): use the full points balance on southern imaging, then cancel the membership. Constraints and policy facts that shape the plan:

• Balance 2,638 points; Plan-40 renews 12 Aug 2026 (GBP 32). Cancel BEFORE renewal.
• Points cannot be refunded, and cannot be used without an active subscription (support article 142963). So: drain first, cancel last, in that order.
• Cancellation target: 10 Aug 2026, two days before renewal. Cancellation is submitted via MyAccount/Cancel.aspx and requires explicit user confirmation on the day; Claude must not submit it unprompted.
• Rates: see the rate card in state/NOTES.md. Billing is per minute of imaging time.
• Moon: bright nights roughly 24 Jul - 2 Aug (full ~29 Jul); dark again 5-12 Aug. Full-moon week includes free access promotions; paid draining focuses on dark and grey nights, narrowband carries the bright week.
• Scope availability is volatile (much of Chile offline as of 18 Jul); re-check the status line on go.itelescope.net before every session and substitute freely.

Session ledger

Update after every run: date, scope, target, imaging minutes, points charged (from account/history.aspx), cumulative spend.

Date	Scope	Target	Plan file	Imaging	Est. pts	Actual pts	Notes
2026-07-19	T33	47 Tuc	ngc104-test.txt	17 min	0 (free)	DID NOT RUN	reservation 749228 expired unused: no images, no logs on T33 (checked 20 Jul); grid shows reschedule=No despite the flag being set at booking
2026-07-19	T59	NGC 6744	ngc6744-t59.txt	180 min	~240 (0% moon disc. until 21 Jul)	381	SUCCESS (txn 851148): ran 00:05:22-03:29:56 SSO, Time Used 3h24m32s, 0% moon disc. Full dataset on scope server: L 15x300s BIN1, RGB 7x300s each BIN2; previews checked, round stars, galaxy clean: no refund case. Effective rate ~112 pts/hr of WALL time (not the 80/hr imaging-time estimate: see NOTES rate correction)
2026-07-20	T33	NGC 6752	ngc6752.txt	17 min	0 (free)	DID NOT RUN	reservation 749229 expired unused: no images, no logs (checked 20 Jul 20:30 UTC, after window)

Cumulative spend: 381. Balance after (verified GetAccountStatus 2026-07-20): 2,257.

Re-estimation warning (2026-07-20): T59 actual came in at 1.6x the estimate (381 vs ~240). Either billing is on wall-clock session time (Time Used matched start-to-end, not the 180 min of exposure) or the rate card's 80/hr for T59 is stale. Treat ALL queue estimates below as ~1.6x low until re-verified against account/history.aspx after the next paid run. At 1.6x, the remaining queue (~1,700 est) actually covers the full 2,257 balance nicely.

Planned allocation (~2,600 points, adapt as scopes/weather allow)

Phase 1, dark nights now - 23 Jul (~1,030 pts):

• T59 NGC 6744 LRGB, 3 h, ~240 (scheduled 19 Jul)
• T32 Centaurus A LRGB, 2 h, ~292: early UK-afternoon window while it is high
• T8 Corona Australis dust complex LRGB, 2 h, ~260
• T70 (Chile) Scorpius tail / Prawn super-wide LRGB, 2 h, ~238

Phase 2, bright nights 24 Jul - 2 Aug (~440 pts, narrowband only):

• T59 NGC 6188 in Ha/OIII/SII 5nm, 3 h total, ~240
• T8 Ha on the Cat's Paw / War and Peace field, 1.5 h, ~195
• Plus any full-moon free promotions for clusters (cost 0, not part of the drain)

Phase 3, dark nights 3 - 10 Aug (~1,130 pts):

• T8 SMC + 47 Tucanae in one frame, 3 h LRGB, ~390: the signature shot, SMC well placed in the second half of the SSO night by August
• T8 or T59 Large Magellanic Cloud attempt if it clears the elevation limits late in the window; otherwise Tarantula on T32, 2 h, ~292
• Remainder (~450): best-of list: repeat the strongest target for more depth, or Chile scopes (T71 106/hr, T73 224/hr) if they return from maintenance: Tarantula and NGC 1313 preferred. Aim to land the balance under ~50 points.

Booked reservations (all with plan attached + reschedule flag)

ID	Scope	Night of (SSO/obs local)	Slot	Plan	Est. pts	Status (2026-07-20)
749227	T59	19 Jul	00:05-03:45	ngc6744-t59.txt	~240	COMPLETED, billed 381
749228	T33	19 Jul	00:05-00:50	ngc104-test.txt	0	EXPIRED unused (no run, no auto-reschedule)
749229	T33	20 Jul	00:05-00:50	ngc6752.txt	0	EXPIRED unused (no run, no auto-reschedule)
749230	T8	26 Jul	21:35-23:55	catspaw-t8.txt	~146 (25% moon disc.)	still booked

The T33 free runs and the T33 first-light test remain outstanding: rebook a free T33 slot (next window: night of 22 Jul SSO, 00:05-00:50, i.e. 21 Jul ~14:05 UTC) and investigate why the reschedule flag read "No" in the grid.

Booking queue (blocked by the rolling 8-hour reservation allowance)

Book in order as quota frees (a session completing releases its hours). Exact New.aspx parameters; all plans already uploaded and verified on their scopes. Verify every booking via Edit.aspx?id= probing (sequential ids), NOT the grid.

#	Scope id	start	end	start sel	end sel	Plan	Est. pts
1	GRAS032	MISSED 21 Jul slot (passed unbooked); rebook next clear night, Cen A best early in the SSO night		12:35 AM	3:35 AM	cena-t32.txt	~292 (x1.6?)
2	GRAS008	2026-07-22T01:35:00	2026-07-22T04:35:00	1:35 AM	4:35 AM	cra-t8.txt	~250
3	GRAS059	2026-07-25T20:35:00	2026-07-25T23:55:00	8:35 PM	11:55 PM	ngc6188-haoiii-t59.txt	~120 (disc.)
4	GRAS059	2026-07-27T20:35:00	2026-07-27T23:05:00	8:35 PM	11:05 PM	ngc6188-sii-t59.txt	~90 (disc.)
5	GRAS008	2026-08-08T02:35:00	2026-08-08T06:05:00	2:35 AM	6:05 AM	smc47tuc-t8.txt	~390
6	GRAS032	2026-08-09T03:05:00	2026-08-09T06:05:00	3:05 AM	6:05 AM	tarantula-t32.txt	~365
7	(T70, blocked: server unreachable)	night TBD before 5 Aug	~2.5h			scorpius-t70.txt (in scratch, re-upload needed)	~238

Substitution rules: if T71 returns to service, move #2 and #7 to T71 (faster f/2.8 optics, cheaper 106 pts/hr; re-cut the plans for 1.55"/px). If T70's server returns, book #7 as-is. Check the go.itelescope.net status line before each booking round. After #6, allocate the remaining balance (~450 pts) to a final deep session on the best-performing scope, sized to land under 50 pts.

10 Aug: verify balance is near zero, download ALL data from data.itelescope.net, then (with explicit user confirmation) cancel via MyAccount/Cancel.aspx.

Operational notes

• Sessions are now RESERVED, not walk-in: upload the plan to the scope, then book it at reservations.itelescope.net with the plan attached (procedure in plans/README.md); iTelescope auto-starts the plan at reservation start and the reschedule flag retries weather losses. Claude sessions monitor rather than drive. T59 moon discount correction: 0% until 21 Jul, 25% from 22 Jul.
• Cron jobs live only in an open Claude session; if a day's session has no live session to fire it, the user prompts "run today's drain session" and any session picks it up from this file plus state/TODO.md.
• Bad-data protection: iTelescope refunds points for weather-ruined runs on request; check each session's images before marking the ledger final.
• Final data sweep before cancellation: everything on data.itelescope.net AND the per-scope /images/qisback/ folders.