I opened the dome tonight and looked to image something with the Esprit 150. I quickly found a Lynds Dark Nebula in the Milky Way just rising, LDN 621
LDN 621 – 1 hour 30 mins of 300s subs
This was particularly low down when I started imaging at 23º altitude. The sky was still rather bright as we were approaching the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere on 21st June. There is definitely some interesting structure within this part of the sky, I will surely revisit once astronomical darkness returns and the altitude is higher.
Mare Tranquillitatis, above Rupes Cauchy I can see what looks like the straight wall a rile going diagonally 9 o’clock to 4 o’clock and Rima Cauchy below the crater and the Hussain crater below that at 4 0’clock
Back in Mare Fecundities I can see rays coming off the crater to the right of Messier crater
In Mare Nectaris, crater Rosse is very obvious
At this point there was some cloud to the South West as the Moon was setting behind my neighbours tree
Moon 5 Days old
Time – 22:38 / Object – M106 / Eyepiece – 31mm
M106 not seen due to cloud, I could see HD 107610 though
Time – 22:41 / Object – M12 / Eyepiece – 31mm
Moved to south east near Vega where no cloud.
M12, seen with direct vision, faint against bright sky. I could see a fairly bright star to the top on the outside of the cluster. Not sure if it is part of the cluster or not
Time – 22:53 / Object – M10 / Eyepiece – 31mm
M10 seen direct vision. Slightly brighter than M12 but not prominent star. Then it got cloudy so packed up
The temperature was 17° at midnight and 80% humidity, clear and dry
Time – 22:15 / Object – Moon / Eyepiece – 31mm
Note that all observations are made North South flipped. First I viewed Mare Crisium
Picard and then Peirce and the smaller Swift crater can be seen easily
In Petavius crater you can see Rimae Petavius and a small crater to the top
Mare Fecundities you can see ripples on the floor
4 Day old Moon
Time – 23:20 / Object – M5 / Eyepiece – 31mm
5 Serpentis can be seen in the same FoV
M5 has a compact centre and I can make out a couple of prominent stars to the top right of the cluster in a line from 4 o’clock to 10 o’clock
Time – 23:50 / Object – M51 / Eyepiece – 31mm
I can easily make out M51 and the interacting NGC 5195 with direct vision, although I cannot see the connecting spiral arms. I can see some of the spiral just not extending all the way to the adjacent NGC
Time – 00:02 / Object – M63 / Eyepiece – 31mm
This spiral galaxy is seen with direct vision
I can seen a mag 11.53 star and 3 others in a line starting with Tyc 3024-1007-1
I can see the bright star next to M63 although the galaxies spiral arms do not reach out as far to it as in a photo on Sky Safari. I can see 2 faint stars diagonally placed on the opposite side of the galaxy in the plane of the disc, not sure of the names
Time – 00:17 / Object – M94 / Eyepiece – 31mm
A very bright and tight core easily seen direct vision, so much tighter than the previous M63
Time – 00:24 / Target – M86 and M84 / Eyepiece – 31mm
• Both galaxies can be seen but they are very faint. I can make out the very faint edge on spiral which is probably an NGC, however I cannot find a reference as of yet. This forms a triangle with the two Messier objects as can be seen in this screenshot from TheSkyX.
I collected the new ZWO Seestar S30 Pro (S30P) today. I thought Luke and I could give it a little run, even though astronomical darkness is no longer with us until August.
I setup the S30P here on the observatory patio. Luke setup the S50 at his house. We then took a variety of test images on both to compare the different scopes.
Whilst I waited for darkens to fall I took a quick phot of Venus and Jupiter close together on my iPhone.
Venus & Jupiter – iPhone 15 Pro Max
Then we setup the S30P so that it could be used remotely. You can share the scope but only 1 person can be logged in at any one time.
Screenshot of sharing scopes
First we tested out just getting focus on Arcturus and seeing what FoV we would get with the much larger chip of the S30P.
Next we slewed to M13. Given the light nights it’s better not going for a galaxy or nebula.
M 13M 13
Then I went fore M27 on the S50 only but I had problems with red banding on the photo. It must have been some interference, however I was not quite sure I knew from where.
M 27
Then I did M10 on the S50. At the same time I did M92 on the S30P as M10 was poorly positioned.
M 10M 92
I then tried a Milky Way shot but this was too faint due to the night sky being so very bright.
Milky Way
Lastly I set the S30P performing a short Star Trails image on Polaris.
Tonight I thought I would continue my testing of the ZWO ASI2600MC Duo camera for performing photometry on T Coronae Borealis, HR 5958, as Wednesday night I realised the Antlia filter was in the imaging train and because even with the filter in, at 1s the maximum the star was, was .1 in green so far from saturated which gives a chance of being able to compare to a mag 2.2 star, Epsilon CrB in the same field of view.
I took 100 x 50ms of TcB, stacked them and this increased the signal to noise which helped. I then downloaded AstroImageJ for the Mac which I will use to perform photometry. Now I just need to learn the software.
Started work on my first photometry project tonight which I will do with my friend GingerGeek. T Coronae Borealis, which is also known as HR 5958 in that constellation is the target. I have been working on the information provided by the BAA
Both the above have proved useful in understanding both the situation and the comparison star/s to observe too. In my case I will attempt to image T CrB along with Epsilon CrB as this is a non variable mag 2.2 star.
T Coronae Borealis
Tonight I managed to take a few different subs at varying exposures, both to characterise the behaviour of the camera on this Field of View, but also to create an annotated overlay to help pinpoint T CrB on other frames.
After taking exposures ranging from 1s to 300s, the latter being for the annotation, I slewed to the Moon to take my first image through this new Sky-Watcher Esprit 150EDX.
Whilst in Tenerife on a family holiday I was fortunate to have some clear spells in the cloud cover that seems to build up in the evenings on many occasions and hug the mountain side. Fortunately I have moved to a different villa, this time down at Playa de la Arena in Santiago del Teide. Whilst the villa is further away from the central mass of the mountain, the light pollution at the coast is much higher, not just moonlight, but also streetlights and wall lights!
But this did not deter me. I setup the Seestar S30 behind a chair, believe it or not it helped. I then setup a path to image between the wall on the left and the larger house roof on the right as South was directly towards the main gate. I could not go the other side of the covered seating area due to further street lights.
I slept for a few hours from 1pm before I started imaging as all the interesting objects in the Milky would not rise and appear in my small window until 3:30pm. The slot I had was from 153 degrees to 184 degrees at an altitude no less than 33 degrees so just past the Meridian.
First up was M20 and I could fit M8 in at the same time. I took 30s subs with a total of 30mins for the final image. I dropped a few frames due to wind gusts that were knocking the little scope about every now and then. I then processed the image in PixInsight. Note that due to the excessive light pollution I had to go easy on the sharpening with NoiseXTerminator and also on the colour saturation, even though I was using the light pollution filter built into the scope.
After this I slewed over to NGC 6520 an open cluster which includes a Barnard dark nebular B86. I did struggle with the colour on this as it really should be a golden hue to the whole region, but alas I put this down to the light pollution and possibly the abilities of this little scope.
The last deep sky object for the night was M16 the Eagle nebula. Again I used 30s subs and a total of 30mins, then processed in PixInsight.
Last up for tonight is the Moon at 21.6 days old waning 56.4% Seestar S30 cropped.
I have the travel scope setup on the patio next to the observatory. Unfortunately I’m waiting for my camera to come back from the dealer so I cannot use the 12”. So instead I have the 100Esprit ready to image SH2-129 an emission nebula with an OIII object called The Squid in front of it. I have the Askar C1 filter in place and will see if this filter which covers Ha + OIII emissions catches it.
I started off with M46 open cluster tonight which has a planetary nebula, NGC 2438 within it. The waning Moon rose at 22:17, 88% illuminated and then started to affect my viewing, however I persisted.
M46 Open Cluster 2 Hours
Next I slewed to NGC 2403, a lovely spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis and let that run for 2 hours whilst I slept.
NGC 2403 1 x 300s
I also set the scope to then automatically slew to M66 and the Trio in Leo. However I woke around 3am and noticed that the sky was very bright with the Moon and there was some cloud around. I turned off the scope and went back to bed. None of the data for NGC 2403 and M66 was usable.
M66, NGC 3628 1 x 300s
I did take 300s darks for the previous night at -15℃ and some Flats.
I have decided tonight to start to retake the 6 objects from the previous two nights. The Moon definitely had a massive effect and so did the cloud. I want to see what it’s like imaging without the Moon and clear skies. The Moon comes up at 11:16pm so I will image from when it is dark until then.
I have had a few intermittent problems with focusing over the last few nights. I have now realised it is worse when their scope is pointing directly up so the ratchet focuser must be slipping. I have taken it to pieces this evening and then reattached the EAF ZWO electronic focuser and bracket. It now seems to be working fine. Due to this issue I lost the first 90 mins of imaging this evening. It’s now 9:30pm and I’m back up and running, but will need to delete the first 7 or so images from this evening that are out of focus.
I started with M38 the open cluster in Auriga and managed to capture around 1 hours worth of 120s subs.
120s M38
It’s worth noting that there is a large black circle on the flats, I thought this was due to a smudge on the filter, however I have now cleaned that and it is still there. Therefore it must be on the corrector plate so I will look tomorrow.
Also I had some problems tonight with the guiding suddenly jumping. I put this down to the stretchy USB cable running to the mount getting caught, however on changing how it was connected I still had the issue so I need to further investigate. I will change the cable tomorrow to using WiFi which I have just found out I can do.
I took flats and darks.
By way of an update, it transpired that some of my problem with the guiding jumping was the 4s exposure I was using, reducing this to 0.5s-1.0s resolved the problem in the main. The only time I saw this again was then when the scope was pointing low to the North Western horizon possibly being effected by the street lights.
Following on from last nights cloudy weather, I have setup again tonight, and it is looking clear. I am imaging M38 again, I will use 120s subs and take the appropriate Flats at the shorter exposure as with the Triband filter it suggested 750ms on Auto however these are far to bright so I will reduce back to 500ms.
After 3 hours I had not only gathered much better data for M38, but also the clouds once again on this mountain had formed. I waited until 1:20am and then packed up as it was not clearing.
Setup in the light polluted Adeje town north of the TF1. We are staying in a 3 story townhouse and I am imaging from the 2nd floor terrace.
New Camera
I have brought with me for the first time the ZWO ASI2600MC AIR and I am imaging with that using the small 220 built in guide chip for guiding and imaging through the Esprit 100 whilst trying to cut down the light pollution using the Antlia Triband RGB filter.
Light polluted Adeje
Focusing on completing my Messier collection, given the full moon, I am imaging M38 an open cluster. Taking 60s exposures to try and keep the chance of over exposing the stars, I am also West of the Meridian and at a starting imaging altitude of 55 degrees thus limiting the ingress of light into the telescope.
M38 Stacked and Annotated 101 x 60s
After 2 hours I moved on to M48 another open cluster. Again it was reasonably high at 42 degrees to allow for 2 hours of imaging before I hit the lights of the buildings. Imaging overhead is clearly what is needed after looking at the last few images of M38.
M48 Stacked and Annotated 102 x 60s
Another 2 hours completed and I then had a hard choice of what to image past the meridian, away from the Moon but before the lights of the buildings. I landed up targeting M109 to the left, along with NGC 3953 to the right of centre and NGC 391 to the far right. One of the stars making up the constellation of Ursa Major, 64 Gamma Uma can be seen. I went back to sleep and woke up around 7am to shut down the imaging run. A good first night.
After 2 nights of cloud tonight, night 4, it is lovely and clear. I am suffering from a cold, however I have setup and been imaging since 7:45pm. I have started with the 100 Esprit and placed the new Askar C1 (Ha +OIII) filter in place. I slewed to the California nebula and rotated the camera to fit the object diagonally across the chip as it is larger than my field of view. I plan on taking 2 hours with the C1 filter before I switch to the C2 (SII + OII) filter
Above is a single exposure of 300s
I managed to complete the imaging run then I tried to process but not with much luck. Fortunately I have a good set of friends who can process narrowband images and here is what they did!
This image above from Tim Powell
This image above from Dave Boddington
This image above also from Dave Boddington
This image above from Nigel Davison
This image above also from Nigel Davison
They are all great and I am so happy with what my friends have done with my data
I then went on and imaged beautiful Venus as a half crescent.
Next up was Saturn and the faint and vaguely tilted rings.
Then I moved onto Jupiter capturing the great red spot GRS in the process.
Last on my list and slightly low at this time of night was Mars.
I could see Syrtis Major even through the turbulent air.
A good night even at this point. I then packed away the travel setup and the Mak180 and opened the dome. However, due to problems with the ASI1600MM camera cooler I did not really get anything done. I also had power problems with he noise creating in which last time I saw this was the PSU itself. I will investigate tomorrow and replace the PSU as needed. The ASI1600MM is beyond repair from a coping perspective. I’m not going to pay to have it fixed, instead I have decided to keep it as a guider with the APS-C chip which is much better than the tiny chips that come with the ZWO planetary cameras. It will work perfectly on the new ONAG On Axis Guider I have just purchased to replace my friends one he lent me.
By the time I had eaten and unpacked and built the telescopes on the mount it was 11:30pm, it then took another 30mins to decide where image from as Polaris was round the front of the property so not visible from the patio. it the. took me another 1.5 hours to sort out and calibrate the scopes and setup an image run on IC434. I had a problem with the focal length of the SharpStar 61 which turned out to be 275mm and then plate solving worked. I finally at 1:30am set about imaging and 30mins later Orion crossed the meridian. It then started imaging again.
The temperature tonight was around 6℃. I went to sleep at 3:30am and left it running but it lost connection to the mount and did not send guiding information to it so all my images from that point were no good. I will try again tonight on the same object.
My second night at the villa with the family. I’ve taken my Sharpstar 61 refractor with me this time with an effective focal length of 272mm. I normally use this a my guider for the Esprit 100 or 120. And I’ve placed it on the AM5 and have attached the trusty 50mm Skywatcher guide scope to it.
Ready to image
Luke has helped me setup this evening after managing to have an accident yesterday which caused me to have butterfly stitches to my shin 🤦♂️
So after about an hour of setting up, finding focus, working out the focal length and polar aligning we have set off to test the first image from this little setup. The FoV is 4.94 x 3.30 degrees.
Plate solve of the first image
NGC 7000 the North American Nebula that is almost overhead, thus removing problems with the pool lights that I have not yet worked out how to turn off.
We are taking 12 x 5mins with the ZWO ASI2600MC colour camera, cooled to -10℃ as the temperature outside is a balmy 21℃.
Single 5min exposure
Once done I will call it a night as I really need to turn off those pool lights.
Back on NGC 7380 The Wizard nebula, also known as SH2-142.
I imported a previous image again and closed looped slewed to that and then adjusted my rotator to 272 degrees. Then I set the filter to Ha for focusing and then to SII for imaging. I took 8 x 10min subs, then Flats and Dark Flats and then off to bed as I was very tired.
Having a nightmare trying to find the exact object centre, even after putting in the RA and Dec of the previous image it seems to land up off centre.
I then found I could open the previous image using Open under Image Link after taking an image and then right mouse click on the image and select closed loop slew.
Ok so the above is massively useful. However, without another piece of software I can’t do a meridian flip, so I have decided I need to try and get the ASIAIR working on top of the scope. I will now set out to get that done.
I left the scope running and went to bed around midnight. The last image was around 3am when it hit the meridian and stopped.
Trying again on NGC 7380 the Wizard in OIII again tonight. Focus position is 16,602 on OIII.
Landed up on Gaia DR3 star to centre the scope and match that of Ha, The PA is below for the rotator, however the rotator was slipping and could not rotate properly. I have tightened up the rotator but it still needs adjusting. I noted that ticking the checkbox for reversing the direction screws up the position. I finally got it in the right angle to image. However, the first handful of images are in the wrong position, so synced on NGC 7380 rather than the star Gaia DR3.
This is where I should be
OBJCTRA – ’22 48 05.544′
OBJCTDEC ‘+58 04 19.89’
I will redo on the next night. I set the scope running and went to bed around 1am
