Dear Pier 14 Syndicate members,
as you may have seen in our conversations, Ray and I have started to think about the possibility to image a large mosaic of the region between Sh2-129 and Messier 52. Here I am sharing the first draft plan for review and comments, so that everyone can pitch in before we make a decision whether this is a good idea.
The basic idea is to start with the Elephant trunk and Bat nebulae, and gradually move East to include the Lion nebula, the Wizard nebula and eventually both Lobster Claw and Bubble nebulae as well as Messier 52.
The plan entails 35 panes, and would be captured mainly in LRGB, with of course a special treatment of the Bat nebula to reveal the Squid in HaOIII in addition to LRGB.
In the draft plan, I have subdivided the mosaic into three phases, that could be captured in two modes from April 23 to Dec 31):
- 2-year plan: Overall currently estimated Pier occupancy at 40% (will need to verified assumptions set forth in link below)
- 1-year plan: Overall currently estimated Pier occupancy at 79% (same comment as above)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15yG7smDp5WVdW2JVnuyKmhO7X172RVySJLb_ioroLb0/edit?usp=sharing
This is a link to a google spreadhseet that you should be able to open and comment in:
- Sheet 1 shows the overall mosaic objective
- Sheet 2 is a draft plan
The plan is subdivided into 9 levels of priority, so that if things go wrong we can stop at pre-determined gates (transition from 1 priority to the next) and still have a few very nice datasets for beautiful pictures.
Please look into this and let us know if you are on board to try this.
Best wishes
Manuel