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:
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.
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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:-
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
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:
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:
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.
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.
This is the second adapter made for the NGF-CM, this is a 2" nosepiece to connect with my Meade 8" SCT as well as my 85mm refractor. It can be used with any telescope with a 2" focuser if it could provide enough focus travel. Since the NGF-CM is pretty low profile, so at least the above two will work without problem.
Pulling out my Meade SCT to test:
It's not yet dark, but observing the moon is no problem.
The collimation is dead-on this time, pushing to 250x with the SVBony 8-16mm at 8mm is great. I missed the view of the moon at such high power for long. Good thing is that, the SVBony is nearly parfocal with my Explore Scientific 30mm.
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Setup my S30 at around 10:05, pointing at M92, a globular cluster:
Come back from a gathering and it's not yet dark. Good thing and bad thing, good is that I miss nothing, bad is that dark skies are getting shorter and shorter.
Let me do M103 first, this is an open cluster, should be easier with not-yet-dark-sky.
It's kind of blocked by nearby stuff, so I relocated my tripod a bit to see if that could be done. A bit marginal right now, see if I can capture it tonight or else it would mean next season!
Part of the field of view is blocked, got it badly.
And then M59 and M60 within the same frame:
Relocated the tripod to capture M49, not bad:
and then M61, the last target of the night:
I should be collimating my Meade 8" SCT but it's Sunday tomorrow so I better sleep earlier. Let me set a deadline of 10:30pm.
Finally I did it with my manual SVBony mount, very nice. I did AI assisted collimation by using Gemini to analyse the out of focus image and diffraction pattern. The view is confirmed to be great on Jupiter.
There was some pinched optics formerly and it should now be fixed.
It is still not dark now (21:32) but I pulled out the S30 anyway.
First up is M40, this is a double star. So seven minutes are more than enough.
Next up is M85, lots of satellite's track within just around 10 minutes.
And then M88, again with so many bright tracks around, around 10 minutes again.
M91 follows, around 10 minutes.
M53 will be the last target, 16 minutes finally.
A sudden clear night but with only around 1 hours of imaging time given I dare not to go sleep late.
A pleasant surprise anyway.
Forecast raining in the next hour.
It can reach focus! Autofocus works perfectly.
The testing target is M81 and M82, 180s exposure unguided, very fine subexposure. No processing, seems like a big off centre from the vignetting pattern. Will use PTEG with carbon fibre to print again for a stronger version.
And then switch to M13 for another test shot, 30s subexposure unguided.
M101 for 180s subexposure.
Setup the S30 along at 22:00, starting from M49, but then that part of the sky was not clear enough. Gven up.
Turned to M84 and M86, will probably spend quite some time tonight on these.
And then M87.
And then M89, M90, M58 within the same frame:
Just back from Manchester and saw a great sky along the way back home.
Setup the S30 and point it at M13 from around 23:33, let see how much photon I could get. 18 minutes finally.
Then M64 for a short period of time, 21 minutes finally:
Well worth to re-visit it later.
Too bad that I don't have chance to test the 300mm f2.8 out tonight!
Continue my Messier Marathon with suboptimal sky.
Started at 9:23pm, summer time marks the beginning of less imaging time.
First up is M102, 28 minutes of exposure:
Next up is M105 with M95 and M96 (mosaic), will do at least one hour of exposure, finally 65 minutes of exposure:
Below will be left for the next time: M103, M85, M64.
Also setup my Canon 200mm f2.8 with guiding Markarian's Chain, containing M84, M86, and surrounding objects, etc.
No polar alignment was done, just very rough focusing since my ipad air was dead. Not really easy to do all these with a small mobile screen.
Try to stack 30s exposures like the S30 therefore.
Very poor result.
Second attempt, reduce exposure to 10s and then stack.
The quest continue...
Started at 21:42 rather late but it cleared up a bit after the storm dave.
I will send the whole observation session with it, maybe around 45 minutes. A promising target which deserves better treatment.
Finally, 1:7:30.
Started at around 9:33p (summer time started)
First target is M44 which is pretty close to the moon, but open clusters should be fine.
6.5 minutes exposure
M63 for 12.5 minutes
M94 for 16 minutes:
M3 for 18 minutes.
Stopped eventually due to shower.
I still too the plunge to continue my Messier marathon.
The first target is M45 before it's sinking too low, I expect to spend 20 minutes with it for a 1.3x mosaic. Starting from around 20:40.
It refuses to perform AI denoise at 20 minutes, saying that the mosaic is incomplete. I shall wait a little bit longer, maybe until 25 minutes. So sad further exposure ruined the stacked image, I didn't save any individual and so it's really less than useable. Just a record, 25 minutes wasted.
Broken M45 mosaic:
I hope to do one more two more objects before closing.
M100 is the next one, really low. Let me do 8 minutes or so.
And then M98 with M99 before they sink too low (also with NGC 4208 plus NGC 4237), let me do around 8 minutes or so.
Then M67 for 5 minutes.
Finally M65 + M66 and also NGC 3628 before it snows (forecast), so for 30 minutes. Got only 13 minutes before cloud rolling in.
Not a bad night, the forecast was bad but I got a handful of targets done.
