Month: July 2026

21:40 – 03:36

I setup the Sky-Watcher Mak 180 this evening to make sure I could get everything working on the new ZWO AM3 mount ahead of starting my imaging on Saturn and Jupiter along with the Moon.

First I had to install a new battery box inside Telrad as the previous one had split. Once completed I installed on the top of the OTA. I setup next to the observatory on the step to give some height. Later in the evening it was apparent from this position I could see objects including the Moon and planets appearing above the Oak tree across the road at around 00:15am at an altitude of 8º near the ecliptic.

Based on the above I estimate Saturn will be visible possibly around 3am. Until then I will continue to refine and test the system.

I opened the Windows laptop I have for astronomy and started SharpCap v4 from Robin Glover. This looks to be a fantastic piece of software, not only for capturing lunar and planetary images but also for automatically processing them using the Live View. It has come on a huge amount since I last used the software.

It now also has a polar alignment built in. This transpired to be fantastic. It is automatic and works on plate solving. So once I got focus, I switched to PA starting in the home position pointing to just near Polaris and clicked start. After a few screens and a little adjustment I was there.

I then slew to Arcturus but it was definitely not on the screen. I must have been close though as the scope looked to be pointing in that direction. I found Sharpcap had a plate solve feature which undoubtably is what is used during PA. I found the star it was pointing at.

I looked at Sky Safari on my phone and found Arcturus was next to this. I moved the mount using the Sky Atlas app on my phone that comes with the ZWO AM3 and Arcturus slewed into view. I synced and was good to go once the Moon rose.

Soon the Moon rose and at full chip resolution it still did not fit in, however given the suggestion (the best one I have heard in a while) from Robin Glover was to ditch the planetary camera I had from ZWO due to the small chip, and instead use one of my deep sky ZWO cameras, so an ASI 2600MC for me, this made finding stars, the Moon etc so much easier.

I then used the Region of Interest feature to zoom into the Moon. You can see how grainy the original unstacked image is.

Then I confirmed the settings for the stack and for set to live view the Lunar surface. The menu option for this was under Tools rather than the Live View on the quick link bar. A small stack of the ROI gave the following.

This was not bad given the currently low altitude of the Moon but also the Jet stream being overhead as detailed on the brilliant weather website SkippySky.Com.Au

The cloud cover, transparency and seeing were excellent tonight, however with the jet stream being overhead the air was just bumping around too much.

At 2am Saturn was still behind my own oak tree.

Finally at 3am Saturn appeared out the side of the oak tree.

I need to understand how to adjust the ADC correctly as it was definitely not easy. Also I need an EAF as manually focusing makes the planet wobble too much.

One of the problems I did have was thinking I was adjusting the gain on the image when I was actually just adjusting it on the screen rendition. This meant I was underexposed on what I was capturing.

The planet looked tiny on the APS-C chip

By 3:35am the sky was visibly bright and my practice session came to an end.

19:00 – 21:30

This evening I went along to the BAS solar viewing session. We had great fun. I took along my S50 and set about taking an image of the solar surface.

We were setup by the school at Cliddesden.

A small Lunt was also providing some lovely views.

I got a quick look at the Moon

Then I helped one of our members, Chris, setup his solar scope and get it into focus using an extended imaging train.

Success

This is real astronomy 😉

21:53 – 23:56

I had been seeing a small problem with the Seestar S30. I noticed on holiday that the top left corner looked out of focus. I contacted the brilliant ZWO support and they suggested it might be a focus issue in that it was not focused properly. Tonight I thought I would refocus and take some more images to see. This is what I saw.

As you can see the image is almost perfect. Much better than the affending stars from the trip up Tenerife’s mountain Teide recently. Problem solved. It had clearly not auto focused correctly. If I see the same problem again I will simply re auto focus. Here is another of Mizar and Alcor in the handle of Ursa Major.

Onto the other test for the night was the Canon 6D that I have and testing it again with the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens for use in Namibia. I set about shooting so images on the twilight sky and the stars were pin sharp.

I also liked this one with a longer exposure and thus the clouds captured in motion.

22:50 – 03:05

I setup with the 150 Esprit in the dome and both the Seestar S30 Pro and the S50.

I set about using the S30 Pro to capture M16 and M17 in a single frame. This was really my first time using the smart scope in earnest.

Meanwhile I setup the 150 Esprit to capture M13.

I stayed with this until the light started to increase and then went to bed. The final unprocessed image straight from the S30 Pro is below.

Once I had processed using PixInsight from the S30 Pro it looked so much better.

On the S50 I took some data on IC 1284.

22:42 – 23:32

I’m out with the 22″ Obsession again doing visual. The images below are from the Moon Globe HD app on my iPhone, not focal this time. I have included as an aid to what I saw visually.

Time – 22:42 / Object – Moon / Eyepiece – 31mm Nagler

• Mare Imbrium looks very clear and so large

• I could see huge Plato crater and Archemedeis to the top. I could make out 3 small craters, Bancroft, Beer and Feuillee before getting to Timocharis near the terminator.

• I could just make out Heinrich and then Pytheis at the terminator 

• Huge Clavius to the top
• I then switched eyepieces

Time – 23:15 / Object – Moon / Eyepiece – 13mm Ethos

• ⁃ Beer & Feuillee stand out so much more. Also Montes Archimedes is very prominent and the 3 main ranges. We are in the middle of a heatwave with a very unusual heat dome sitting over my part of England. This is causing the air to be very still and thus the seeing is astonishing. The Moon is still not wobbling at all.