Sky transparency — night of 21–22 September 2026

Cloud arrived at 20:49 — detected by the all-sky camera, independent of N.I.N.A. Before it the sky ran at index 100 (IQR 92–103); after it 144 (IQR 127–162). 15 of 39 light frames landed before the cloud. Guiding ran at 0.71″ RMS before the cloud and 0.66″ after; the worst minute was 2.25″ at 21:59.

Index before 20:49
100 · IQR 92–103
Index after 20:49
144 · IQR 127–162
Cloud onset (all-sky)
20:49 · independent
Errors after onset
0 of 0 · solve + PHD2
Guide RMS
0.68″ · RA 0.49 · Dec 0.47

Normalised transparency index, by filter

100 = that target and filter's own clear‑sky median (this night's own pre-cloud median). Shaded columns are autofocus runs; the first target is named at the top left; ticks along the base are errors.

H α O III S II ▲ Plate solve failed ◆ PHD2 error
05010015020020:0021:0022:0023:00% of clear-sky medianclear-sky baselineNGC 346OSH

All‑sky background brightness

Mean luminance of the upper sky per all‑sky still — independent of anything N.I.N.A. recorded. The camera auto‑exposes, so this is an instrumental number, not photometry.

Roof shut 23:11–23:37. The all-sky camera is inside the observatory, so those 79 stills measured the roof, not the sky, and are left out of this chart and the cloud detection.

030609012020:0021:0022:0023:00Mean sky luminance (0–255)all-sky

PHD2 guiding

RMS tracking error per minute from the PHD2 guide log, taken about zero rather than about each minute's mean, so slow drift counts as error. 1173 guide frames over 3.6 h of guiding in 7 sessions; the gaps are slews, dither settles and autofocus runs, when PHD2 was not guiding. PHD2 discarded 3 further frames — usually a lost star. The worst minute (2.25″ at 21:59) is clamped at the top of the plot.

RA RMS Dec RMS ◆ PHD2 error
0.00.30.60.91.220:0021:0022:0023:00RMS guide error (arcsec)night RMS 0.68″DecRA

All‑sky frames at the key moments

Times come from the still filenames, so they line up with the charts exactly.

All-sky at 19:14
19:14 · start of night
All-sky at 20:49
20:49 · cloud onset
All-sky at 20:47
20:47 · peak brightness 112.3
All-sky at 23:37
23:37 · end of night

Clear‑sky reference medians

The divisors behind the index — median detected stars per light sub before 20:49.

TargetFilterMedian starsFramesSource
NGC 346H5488tonight, clear frames
NGC 346O3294tonight, clear frames
NGC 346S4813tonight, clear frames

Event timeline

All observatory events with their attributed causes.

All 86 frames
TimeClassTargetFilterExpStarsHFRIndex
19:13:49autofocusNGC 346L5s346.74—
19:14:04autofocusNGC 346L5s4051.91—
19:14:19autofocusNGC 346L5s2522.74—
19:14:33autofocusNGC 346L5s1393.71—
19:14:48autofocusNGC 346L5s834.61—
19:15:09autofocusNGC 346L5s635.22—
19:15:29autofocusNGC 346L5s3362.07—
19:15:49autofocusNGC 346L5s1583.03—
19:16:04autofocusNGC 346L5s1003.67—
19:16:18autofocusNGC 346L5s594.89—
19:16:39autofocusNGC 346L5s4451.80—
19:23:21lightNGC 346H300s4963.6291%
19:28:23lightNGC 346H300s5063.6392%
19:34:00lightNGC 346H300s4973.7591%
19:39:01lightNGC 346H300s4853.8289%
19:45:09lightNGC 346O300s3394.15103%
19:50:10lightNGC 346O300s3294.31100%
19:55:32lightNGC 346O300s3274.3999%
20:00:33lightNGC 346O300s3084.4994%
20:06:21lightNGC 346S300s4814.24100%
20:11:22lightNGC 346S300s4644.3896%
20:16:54autofocusNGC 346S300s4734.45—
20:17:14autofocusNGC 346L5s3252.50—
20:17:28autofocusNGC 346L5s627.12—
20:17:43autofocusNGC 346L5s865.36—
20:17:58autofocusNGC 346L5s1384.29—
20:18:13autofocusNGC 346L5s2163.21—
20:18:33autofocusNGC 346L5s3412.46—
20:18:53autofocusNGC 346L5s4562.03—
20:19:13autofocusNGC 346L5s4522.10—
20:19:33autofocusNGC 346L5s3782.49—
20:19:53autofocusNGC 346L5s2443.37—
20:20:08autofocusNGC 346L5s1704.03—
20:20:28autofocusNGC 346L5s4821.96—
20:26:35lightNGC 346S300s6763.50141%
20:32:44lightNGC 346H300s5683.67104%
20:37:45lightNGC 346H300s5873.61107%
20:43:19lightNGC 346H300s5483.72100%
20:48:20lightNGC 346H300s5523.79101%
20:54:38lightNGC 346O300s5813.55177%
20:59:39lightNGC 346O300s4983.81151%
21:05:16lightNGC 346O300s4663.92142%
21:10:17lightNGC 346O300s4543.96138%
21:16:35lightNGC 346S300s6153.72128%
21:21:36lightNGC 346S300s6353.79132%
21:22:44autofocusNGC 346L5s4622.15—
21:23:03autofocusNGC 346L5s776.41—
21:23:18autofocusNGC 346L5s1284.84—
21:23:38autofocusNGC 346L5s2043.74—
21:23:53autofocusNGC 346L5s3072.83—
21:24:13autofocusNGC 346L5s4432.22—
21:24:33autofocusNGC 346L5s5421.87—
21:24:53autofocusNGC 346L5s4832.16—
21:25:13autofocusNGC 346L5s3772.76—
21:25:28autofocusNGC 346L5s2843.35—
21:25:43autofocusNGC 346L5s1844.63—
21:26:03autofocusNGC 346L5s5811.80—
21:32:08lightNGC 346S300s7073.42147%
21:37:10lightNGC 346S300s7833.31163%
21:43:19lightNGC 346H300s7233.24132%
21:48:21lightNGC 346H300s6673.43122%
21:53:53lightNGC 346H300s6933.33126%
21:58:54lightNGC 346H300s7113.30130%
22:05:01lightNGC 346O300s7323.29222%
22:10:02lightNGC 346O300s6893.37209%
22:15:30lightNGC 346O300s6893.39209%
22:20:31lightNGC 346O300s6823.41207%
22:21:29autofocusNGC 346L5s5462.00—
22:21:43autofocusNGC 346L5s1035.88—
22:21:58autofocusNGC 346L5s2054.15—
22:22:13autofocusNGC 346L5s2943.13—
22:22:28autofocusNGC 346L5s4812.17—
22:22:48autofocusNGC 346L5s6091.83—
22:23:08autofocusNGC 346L5s5891.93—
22:23:28autofocusNGC 346L5s4422.55—
22:23:43autofocusNGC 346L5s3153.38—
22:23:58autofocusNGC 346L5s2264.28—
22:24:18autofocusNGC 346L5s6001.87—
22:30:23lightNGC 346S300s7213.52150%
22:35:25lightNGC 346S300s7123.52148%
22:41:00lightNGC 346S300s7423.49154%
22:46:01lightNGC 346S300s7743.40161%
22:52:11lightNGC 346H300s6813.43124%
22:57:12lightNGC 346H300s6673.49122%
23:02:40lightNGC 346H300s6983.48127%
23:07:41lightNGC 346H300s6923.48126%

Star counts come from Hocus Focus detection on each saved sub, tagged with the filter in place at exposure start and the target then being imaged. Frames inside completed autofocus runs are excluded. Still capture times come from the AllSky filenames. All times are local.