Jerry - The short answer to your prior question "In your experience is it difficult to get time on a particular scope or do you post a request which gets put into the ACP planner queue?" is "Yes, it is difficult to get time on the research grade scopes because they are qued up with ACP imaging plans." I suspect that this is weather related and am keeping an eye on the system to see if, during a string of clear weather dates, the ACP ques complete and the research grade scopes then open up. I have uploaded the raw luminance image generated by the Gras 14 scope and the separate calibration files. GRAS did not take real time calibration times. There is a directory that contains calibration files stored by exposure seconds. These master flats are updated every few months. I grabbed what I felt was appropriate. If you feel other calibration files are needed, let me know and I'll hunt them.
I looked at the FITS header and it indicated that the exposure was 250 seconds.
I erred in my report. The exposure was 250 seconds. I believe this was auto-selected by GRAS. I used their default "dim galaxy" filter setting.
Did you take multiple darks at the same exposure and temperature? Also did you take multiple flats?
See comments above regarding GRAS flats. I will have to log on and determine if this is configurable and if you can order real time darks and flats.
Were you charged for the time to take these?
Not for taking the flats. See discussion above regarding pre-calibrated flats. FTP download time is a no charge activity. GRAS has a variable pricing plan that depends on the scope. It is based on a flat fee plus points per hour. See the table "Hourly Rate in Points Per Hour" midway down these pages noting the equivalent hours of usage: http://grasbill.global-rent-a-scope.com/pricelist/pricelist.asp?Plan=Plan-40 http://grasbill.global-rent-a-scope.com/pricelist/pricelist.asp?Plan=Plan-90 As a practical matter, a high-resolution image on any of the research grade scopes takes about 6 ot 10 minutes to execute. As a practical matter, you can squeeze out maybe four or five images on the research grade scopes before you have to add another 50 points for $50 when using the basic $40 dollar per month plan. It works out to around $5 to $10 per image. As I mentioned at that outset, this is expensive to use. It is something I am only test driving for a couple of months during the winter on a part of the world I probably will never travel to. (The Northern Hemisphere NGC7320 image was taken on a lark when Australia was clouded out.) Let me know if you need any more info. My apologies for the high response times. Work and Christmas and the rest of my life - you know the drill. - Kurt