20261101 Area around IC5070 NGC 6997 and NGC 8989

This is a 1.1x mosaic around IC5070, I found this interesting in the Sky Atlas mode so this will be the composition.  Expect to spend 1.5 hours with it, i.e. the whole session.

The side effect of doing a 1.1x mosaic is that, the edge of the frame will become less noise affected due to field rotation.  But of course, at the expense of longer exposure time.

Maybe I shall try using the EQ mode so as to avoid the problem of field rotation.

20261022 Short Observation Session: Comet 161P

Back home at around 10:00pm, so started rather late.

Moon hanging high and bright around, a storm is coming so I shall try to do something or else there's no more chance for the coming few days.

Pulled out my reclined chair for binocular observations, seeing those fuzzy patches of light are great.

Turned the S30 to 161P, maybe spend half an hour with it.  

55 minutes finally, it's right in the middle.  Field rotation is obvious and I have to crop it a bit.  Maybe I shall try EQ mode again, for some reason it didn't work a few months ago.

20261018 Western and Eastern Veil by Canon 200mm + 552mc pro and the Propella Nebula by S30

Started at around 19:40, the Canon 200mm setup is guided with a 230mm guidescope.  Yes, the guider is longer focal length than the main scope.

Take a few initial shots with 120s exposures, total four of them.

Then, I pushed the exposure to 300s.  There are some guiding errors after like 8 shots for unknown reasons, and 4 of them are ruined by random satellites in the sky.

Dropping back to 160s exposures, 42 in total.  Result pending processing.

And then the Propella Nebula by the S30, this target is not in the database of the S30 but it's not difficult to locate it.  Just around (NW of) Sadr of Cygnus.  Total 2 hours 26 minutes:

Surprisingly good.

20261017 A night of debugging, trying out Canon FD 300mm new adapter, Omicron Cygni and the Ghosts of Cassiopeia IC59 and IC63

I setup my FD Canon 300mm f2.8 before darkness came, roughly focused with a remote tree.

Did a quick polar alignment after dinner and started imaging from around 7:30pm.  The polar alignment is still quite good, only a very minor tweak.

I swinged the Canon to Omicron Cygni for 60s guided exposure, will keep on for maybe like an hour?  Just to see how it works out.  

Maybe it's the first real imaging session after 3D printing the new adapter with carbon fibre filament.  

After around 10 exposures for 60s each, stacking failed and I found that the mount somehow drifted away.  I then fixed it and jump to 120s exposure each.  

So far it's alright and I will go for bathing after six exposures, and then let it go on.

I have accumulated more than an hour of data, but the result was not that good.  Some processing required.

I then moved to Eastern Veil Nebula (C33), pushing gain to high and turn on cooling.  But for some unknown reason, it always fails to stack.  The sky is clear, and the image is not bad, maybe field rotated or?  (also field rotated, EQ tracking should not rotate but the new adapter did rotate) Need to see why later.  (Found out why, it's all overexposed, the frames are all white)

Try again with M33, just a test.  120s exposure, medium gain, -10 degree cooling.  Not really useful results due to the above bugs.

Call it a night of debugging.

And then the S30 is out as well, pointing at the Ghosts of Cassiopeia as planned, will spend the rest of the night with it.  Over 2.5 hours of exposure:

20261017 Binocular Solar Observation and planning for tonight

AR4551 and AR4557 occupied the middle of the solar disc, both showing much detail at 18x handheld image stablisied.

Great for a quick look.

I even tried to observe indoor through dirty window glass.  Maybe it's just 18x, I found most detail are still there.  Lazy guy setup indeed.

Planning:

The forecast is very favorable tonight.  

The S30 will be up and capturing something again, potential candidates:

1. The Ghosts of Cassiopeia (IC 59 & IC 63)

2. The Propeller Nebula (Simeis 57)

Maybe I shall use my Canon FD 300mm f2.8 again tonight with my 533mc pro?  It's now well adapted with my JMI focuser together with a EAF Pro.   Or shall I focus on using the Canon 200mm with my 6D?  

20261016 Omicron Cygni Region

This one is even more elusive, probably pushing the limit of the S30.

I will spend the whole observation session on it, in the hope to bring out those thin and delicate structures of the nebulous area.

Two hours of exposure, processed only by the S30:

Not bad for this very dim target.  The upper right and the lower right corners are suffering from noise due to field rotation, so these areas were not overlapped enough among all frames.

20261013 West of Gamma Cygni (Sadr) Region

I will dedicate the whole session to this area, a very large diffused nebula.

Total 2.5 hours of exposure.

Lovely.

20261011 Not so clear night M52 with NGC 7635 and NGC 7538

The forecast was good but the sky didn't really clear up until 9:00pm.  Not really cleared at all, but it worths to pull out the S30.

So I am re-doing M52, framing NGC 7635 as well NGC 7538 too.

Started at 9:05pm, and I hope I can get more than an hour of exposure.

81 minutes finally:

20261007 The Double Cluster NGC 869 + NGC 884 and Comet 161P

The sky was not so good, but acceptable.

Hope to get around an hour of exposure on the Double Clusters.

And then 161P which is rather low in the sky, just a few degrees above the nearby trees.  I will try to capture as long as I could.  I don't know whether if it's feasible with the small S30 but why not give it a trial?

On capturing it, I found that it reaches it's highest point during this time of the day!  It's slightly off the location indicated by the S30 but then it's still within the field of view, I'm surprised to be able to capture another comet with it.

My first comet hunting was so difficult.

Finally, swinged to Almach for twenty minutes, unable to split this tight double with just 30mm aperture.

20261006 IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula (again ) and also Coat Hanger

The sky was no good for the whole day, but it's clearing up so why not give it a run?

Let's try again and hopefully got more photons this time:

Stacking failed after around 1.5 hours. 

So I switched to the coat hanger for a small mosaic, this one is interesting visually and the S30 could capture it via stitching:

Lovely, 46 minutes of total exposure.

New solar observation tool

I ordered a pair of 58mm solar filter for my Canon 18x50mm IS.

I choose glass filters instead of Baader film, since I want them to last longer.

My thousand oaks solar filter still survive after nearly 30 years of services!

I'm glad to have a chance to test them out this morning.  Despite there are quite many clouds floating around, I got some really nice views.  Sunspots were clear, with quite a lot of detail within!  

The nice optics of the Canon 18x50 IS definitely shows a lot.  With two eyes, it certainly helps, too.  The image stablisation works wonder at 18x, it's just so convenient and powerful.

I've also ordered a herschel wedge for my refractor.  

I shall test it later, and if it is good, I might import some more to the local market.

20261002 IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula

It has been raining crazily. 

The floor is still wet but the sky clear up suddenly.

Setting up the S30 is no brainer, the best part of this little piece of equipment.

It's 20:56 now, and exposure should begin before 21:00, I still have 1.5 hour of exposure hopefully.

After around 30 minutes of exposure, it rains.  I didn't realise until stacking failure was reported.  I pulled the S30 inside and use a fan to dry it, hopefully it's not soaked yet.

I should try this target again later.

20261001 IC1318 with NGC 6910

Will be spending the whole session on it, hopefully get more than an hour of exposure.

Finally more than two hours, 2:14 to be exact:

Quite many nebulosity.  I'm going to do more of these, I mean to work on a single target per session.

I shall also bring out my 6D with my 200mm lens to take even wider field of view.  Time to explore the potential of non-cooled imaging.

20260930 The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) by S30

I am doing mosaic with 2x to maximise the field of view, started at around 9:00pm.

Transparency maybe 5-6/10.

See how long exposure I could get.

Total for 46 minutes, failed to finish the whole mosaic, the nebula is not very visible:

20260923 Messier Hunting Pause, Capturing Best targets of the night

No more new target could be acquired tonight.

C27 will be my first target, the Crescent Nebula:

40 minutes of exposure.

I also setup my 85mm refractor looking at the moon and also scan around with my daughter Almy.

20260915 Messier Marathon goes on... trying marginally low targets

Despite AI found it couldn't be completed here in Scotland, I will continue anyway.

M5 is higher in the sky since I started earlier (before 9:00pm) today.

Blocked.

M8 also blocked.

M9 also blocked.

M72 partially blocked.

M73 seems alright, only slightly blocked, still failed.

--

Going back to M72 worked (9:26pm), for 11 minutes:

Going back to M73 (optical asterism of four main stars) for 5 minutes:

--

No more suitable target, so switching to C11 the Bubble Nebula with M52 at a corner, for 15 minutes:-

Re-visited M14 for a better image, for xx minutes:-

20260909 Messier Marathon continues... M52

No targets found in the "best for the night" list.

So, I try to check one by one, M52 is the first target, at higher than 60 degrees up.

Next is M10:

And then M12 which is rather close by:

M14 which is a bit higher in the sky (just 30s exposure due to cloud)

Last target, non Messier, IC 5070... just to find a target higher in the sky to get rid of the cloud, failed due to cloud... only got 2 minutes of exposure which show nothing.

Three more!  Not bad indeed.

--

Next time:

M72-73 around 20 degrees

M5  around 10 degrees 

M107, M8, M9 are less than 10 degrees

Messier Marathron Continue M29 and ...

It's pretty clear tonight after the brass band of my daughter.  She's enjoying the views with binoculars and I am doing this.

First up is M29:

And then M27:

And then M71:

Pretty surprise to be able to capture M11 which is rather low in the sky, a very fine open cluster, the wild duck:

M2 is another pleasant surprise too, time to sleep after this one, a compact globular cluster:

Equipment reorganisation: quit solar imaging and simplying deep sky imaging

I sold my Solarmax 60 / BF10, so my Tele Vue Ranger goes back to its original shape.  The JMI focuser is removed and it's going back to its original 1.25" helical.  The tube ring is removed too.  The ASI 462mm could be sold too, since it's now only for guiding, a bit overkill.

I am selling my Canon FD 300mm f2.8 with the JMI focuser, together with the ZWO EAF Pro.  I hope to find someone who could use it more than I do.  

Serious deep sky imaging is not my cup of tea.  I will go back to DSLR imaging or with ZWO Seestar.

Simplicity is the best.

The best telescope is the one that I can use most.  

I began solar imaging when my kids were too small so that I dare not to leave them at home.  Moving to Scotland makes solar imaging harder, I simply couldn't do it in winter since it's too low in the sky.  I can go back to the night sky eventually.

I love solar imaging, but I prefer night sky.   Setting up the equipments for a single target (the sun) is not really cost effective, I will need to go back and forth to bring all the stuff ready for a few shots.  The bottomline is that, I still got white light solar filters.

2026/8/13 Resuming Messier Marathon M57 (also M56)

Playing Mahjong with family until ten o'clock and the sky already got dark.

There is no reason not to take out the S30.  Just use the time for brushing teeth might be good enough for a target or two.

Doing M57 as it was one of those best targets in the database for the day, 15 minutes of total exposure, no AI denoise:

And then M56 for ten minutes:

Two more!

20260812 Partial Solar Eclipse

This is the second time (?) observing a partial solar eclipse in Scotland.

Friends will come so better setup something in spite of the poor sky, it even rained.

We still have some fun in between the gaps of the cloud.

Some of the shots:

Before, around, and after the maximum moment...

2026/5/25 M39

It has been long since my last observation, since the sky won't get dark until after 23:00 at least.  I am starting from 23:30 tonight.

I will confine myself to a single target namely M39, again with my S30.

15 minutes of exposure, a fine open cluster.  

Darkness will keep on shrinking until 21st of June, so maybe I might only be able to do once or twice again in the near future.

Bad weather and late darkness

Bad weather combined with late darkness as summer is coming, all these rendered no observation.

I have ordered a little cheese board to mount my camera lenses together with my little guidescope side-by-side.  

It looks very elegant.

I will be selling my camera lens adapter for my ASI camera, it will be simpler to go for a guiding setup like this.  This is more stable and cheaper to run.  The only downside is no light pollution filter could be used, but I don't think it's needed for relatively short focal length.

20260430 Canon 6D with Canon 200mm f2.8L, S30 Messier make up M94

Really trying out the Canon setup, unguided.

Markarian's Chain of galaxies M86, M87, M89, M90, M58, M60, M100 and many NGCs.

Could do no more than 30s at ISO 1600, the sky was not dark enough until 22:15.

Stacking of 30s exposures did not bring anything good enough.

S30 Pointing at M94, for around half an hour, this target was done before but the result was less than satisfactory.  

20260429 Sun

 ASIAir plus with Solarmax60.

The higher frame rate is good enough for solar imaging I would say.

Two frames mosaic sttitched.

Focus by JMI-CM modified with ZWO EAF Pro via ASIAIR Plus.

20260428 Testing of FD 300mm f2.8, S30 at Leo Triplet

The setup got a lunar video early before sunset:

Started rather late at around 22:40.

The Canon FD 300mm f2.8 is pointing at M109 unguided at 60s exposure.  

This is a test on the latest adapter, hopefully solving most of the previous issues.  

Stars look quite nice.  Effective focal length was calculated to be 293mm (it was around 270mm formerly).  Another good indicator.  The adapter could be further enhance to ensure better squaring, and slightly shorter to provide full focus travel to the NGF-CM.

For some reason I switched to M51 later, again with 60s exposure.

Unprocessed stacked raw.

The S30 is pointing at the Leo triplet (M65, M66 and NGC 3628).

Will keep these for the rest of this session.

Final version of Canon FD 300mm f2.8L with NGF-CM

I reprinted the adapter with a longer nosepiece to avoid misalignment due to the setting screw hitting the grove.  This new one is printed using PETG with carbon fibre.  To do this, I have to use stainless steel nozzle but it's still difficult.  

The first one failed in the middle, since the supporting structure collapsed during the print:

It's so bad that I have to cancel the print, wasting quite a lot of filaments.

I did a atomic pull to clear up everything, slow down the print as advised by Gemini.  It did help but some of the supporting collapsed too:

Since I kept a close eye on the printing process (3.5 hr!), I am aware of the issue before it's too late.  Pausing the print and ask Gemini again, I trimmed the hairy part so that it won't hinder the nozzle movement.  But the lost of some supporting part will be a trap for closing the ceiling.  Gemini suggested to use masking tape to replace the lost support:

Gemini said it's valley of death!  I slowed down the printing of the ceiling to 40%, and it closes sucessfully.  The new adapter was printed nicely.

No more misalignemt issue with the longer nosepiece before the grove, another issue was found about squaring the focuser.  It could be adjusted by the fixing screws on the NGF-CM.

This is another hobby altogether.  I mean DIY of equipments.

Frustrating sometimes but lovely at the end.  I will test it out shortly.  Dark night is getting shorter and shorter.