Complain blog is full of complaints.

Day 5 will mark a new writing style. As I'm more or less constrained to my computer whilst working on the data, I shall be writing the blog as a running internal mono-/dialog. As such, expect there to be some discontinuity betwixt paragraphs. [Note: After finishing this blog, I find this style to be abrasive, childish, and prone to me generally not liking it. As such, Day 6 and on shall return to my former All-at-once writing style. But, as all good scientists, I must report my experience with this experiment; even though it's a terrible, terrible result.]

A plague o'er both their houses! Their, of course, being altitude and snow. As I mentioned in the comments of Day 4's blog, I was rather hurried to finish it before the hike. I must say, I succeeded, but the hike ultimately destroyed me. If it were lower atmosphere, or if the snowdrifts didn't range from ankle to (once) knee deep, then I would have been in a much better mood at the end. But these are a minor price to pay for the absoultely amazing pictures I snapped at the top of mount Biggalow. We could see, according to Arion, 100 plus miles with surprising clarity. I am, once again, completely flabbergasted by the quality of the air up here. If only t'wasn't so thin..

But I am done complaining. [Note: This is a bold-face lie] A gallon of water and some pop-tarts later, I felt much better, and returned to the observatory to prepare for Jupiter imaging. Through a therapeutic chain of events, I ended up learning how to operate Registax, with limited (read: limit as x->0) success. I was able to create a semi-decent picture, but I'm too ashamed of it to post here. But I'm glad I've had the practice; it will certainly help when I start working with Saturn imaging. Let's hope this extensive tutorial of Registax will help!

Time: 6:40
And it did, at least in some ways. Using the tutorial, I've created a series of reference points, and from that I hope to get a much much much much much much clearer image. Unfortunately, in the time it took Registax to completely work before, it has completed... 12% of the first step. The time loss may very well be offset, nay! I dare say it will DEFINATELY be offset by the sheer level of clarity that this new method will create. I will make a gentlemanly bet with anyone who disagrees! Except Zach, who as already done this with a different set of data.

Time: 7:00
It was of... limited success. The image was resoundingly mediocre, and only marginally better quality than the original (the one created by using the most basic settings of Registax.) I shall try once more with a different set of reference points, but seeing as how I have more than enough time to experiment around with this, I can spare the time sink this method creates. At this point, it's just a matter of trial and error until I figure out if this method is beneficial enough to warrent it.

Time: 7:45
I was a fool! My greed for scientific advancement has created a beast that cannot be contained! Registax has taken on a life of it's own, and is now terrorizing the countryside! Luckily, me and a band of adequately trained students were able to contain, and with skillful use of task manager, the threat was eliminated.
Translation: I set Registax to work, and left to use the bathroom. When I got back, it had frozen up, and I had to hard crash my computer. At least I got a great imag- oh wait, no, it too was mediocre.

Time: 8:30
All efforts to get Registax to perform at ahigher level have been unsuccessful. Frustration has mounted, as each new step I take serves only to make the images worse. I am setting it asside for a moment and allowing myself a blissful reprieve. With that, I set out for the dorm with a few others; a change of scenery to stir the creative juices - to grant me the keystone, NAY, the rossetta's stone to understanding this complex monstrosity that is Registax!!

Time: 10:45
Fail. Trial 2, fail. 3, fail. 4-fail. Trial... trial 27 fail. Trial 28 fail! Every picture comes out blurry! Even the one that I placed umpteen dozen points to compare against, I got a blurry picture. This particular one had black splotches, uneven texture, and burning frustration. At least tonight is nearly over.. Oh wait, no. It's going on 11. Saturn team doesn't even start for another 4 hours. I find myself becoming rather discouraged...

Time: 12:00
An hours rest, and a new days' determination. I woke up at midnight exactly to a large plate of spaghetti with meatballs and red sauce. We somehow managed to forget parmesean cheese, but it was still fantastic. I'm finishing up another Registax; t'was running whilst I slept. Initial observations lead me to believe it too is goin to be trash. We will find out when it finishes stacking.

Time: 12:30
Success! The dishes were a success! What? Registax? No, the image was even blurrier than normal. I know! I thought I had it that time too. I really, truly, completely believed this image would be better than mediocre! Sarcasm? Never, I say! I am appalled that you'd suggest such a thing! I say good day, sir. I say, Good DAY sir!

Time: 6:00
Another nap, and I was nice and refreshed for Saturn imaging. We aligned the telescope, spotted Saturn beautifully in the view finder, and were ecstatic to see... absolutely nothing. Blank screen. 3:30 am, using the given catalog values, we got a wonderful view of open space. It took until 4:15, with some help from Arion doing voodoo-mirror aligning in the control room, we found Saturn. A focus was ascertained, and then we took 10 short exposures over a range of focus' to find the range for focus'. A series of 5 more slightly longer exposures cemented a small range of ideal focus values. As the day wrapped up, we took four 2000 frame exposures, which shall be what we analyze. A shame we didn't get anything on day 1, this promises to yield at least decent images.