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...