Clear skies, but work the day after… so I set up in the back yard. I wanted to test my new power plant (based on an old car battery) - that part went flawlessly. Since there was not much wind, I set up the Newton. Considering the light pollution, I finally chose the Bode and Cigar galaxies as a target. The sky background allowed me 3 minutes at ISO 400 per picture, I went for an hour of that.

Using the StarAdventurer, I did more testing with the recently acquired 100-400mm lens - which I used without the protector filter this time, so as to avoid reflections. I tried for the flame and horsehead nebulas (about 1/4h at 1min/pic at ISO1600, f/5.6 i.e. wide open), later with a few pics of the Pleiades - but with the angle, that was definitely too much for the SA.

Just for fun, I took a couple pictures of the running setup, and along the tube to the sky. I'll have to try that again, with focus on the sky - the tube will be less than sharp due to its movement anyway.

Clear skies, I stll wanted to do M46 (cluster with planetary nebula). As this object is quite low in the south-east, I chose to go to Beidweiler. I also finally read up on the MGEN, so as to have it controlling the camera, and to try dithering. Setting up was trouble this time, the 3rd try was the good one. I then proceeded with a series on M46. This series got to an early end, the MGEN autoguider being out of sufficient juice. I proceeded without guiding first on M46, then on Thor's helmet.

In parallel, I set up the LXD75, but had forgotten a detail - I'd need a second T2 adapter to use it with a scope. So I used the 200mm lens on the heart and soul nebulas. At least I could use the programmable timer there. I followed that up with a short series on the Witchhead nebula.

At last, clear skies (except for thin high clouds, especially towards the horizon), weekend… off to Ielwen. There being quite some wind, no Newton this time, thus ED80 - not what I wanted for galaxy season, but had to make do. 2 hours worth of M95/M96/M105(plus NGC 3384, 3389) (second Leo Triplet), 1 hour worth of M101.

In parallel, I set up the StarAdventurer and used the 50mm lens. That became three series of one hour each: from Pleiades to California nebula, between Perseus and Cassiopeia, and the core of the Big Dipper with comet 41P / Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak - and yes, one does clearly see the comet moved between start and end of that hour.

I also did some shots using my unmodded camera on the imperfectly aligned Meade mount.

Yes, 3 mounts in parallel… I guess I suffered from withdrawal.

Sunday morning, clear sky… I set up the Newton, this time on the LXD75, with the Baader sun filter (white light) of course. I'll need to check on how to finely control the LXD75 though, by default it's high speed mode which is fine for slewing around, less so for fine-adjustement of the position when you want to properly center the sun in the camera's picture.

I managed to properly focus and took a series of pictures of the entire sun disc. I also tried for a series of pictures taken with the 2x barlow lens. The idea was to run these series through Registax. Since Registax won't directly take on CR2 pictures, I first tried to run them through PIPP - which worked fine for the series of the entire sun, but not (yet) for the detailed series. Registax provided a nice enough stack for the first series, even if I didn't yet get along with further processing steps.

3/4 moon (increasing), shortly after sundown… I set up the Newton on the EQ6 and took a series of pictures. Another series of the full disc with slightly longer exposures was followed by a few series with barlow, of different regions of the moon.

I tried using PIPP again, which went fine for the full disc pictures, but not for the close-ups. Stacking in Registax was ok for the b/w TIFs produced by PIPP, I tried for automatic application of the wavelet filter.

No observation today, but… I saw a “wow” picture the other day from the moon, taken with a ZWO ASI 178MC and a SW Mak 180, processed with AutoStakkert. This got me motivated to try this software, which indeed turned out much better results from the get-go than registax. I fiddled with my recent few series from the Sun and the Moon and got quite decent results. I guess the next step will be to properly put a few close-ups together into a mosaic, but my first attempts with MS ICE haven't been successful yet.

Some pictures of the sun.

Some more pictures of the sun, without and with barlow lens.

As the sky was pretty clear, with me on holidays… off to Ielwen. As there was no wind, I used the Newton. After some trouble with the alignment, I did a test shot of M51 (whirlpool galaxy), then of M63 (sunflower galaxy). The latter was so nice I decided to go for that target rather than M64 (black eye galaxy) which I had in mind. M106 might have been another candidate. I ended up doing 2h's worth of 8-minute exposures at ISO800. I also did a few test shots of Jupiter.

In parallel, on the SA, the 200mm lens was used. Since a “high” target (Virgo cluster) produced trails, I went for something lower - central Auriga, which was low over the horizon. Next up was a region in Cepheus, then Deneb an the north america nebula, and also in Cygnus, the Sadr region. I added some test shots of Jupiter.

Clear sky and no urgent needs the next day… I went to Ielwen, but a farmer was still driving his tractor around the fields. With the dry weather lately, there was a lot of dust flying around, which besides the lights decided me to find another spot. Going north, I ended up at a place above the Esch/Sure barrage, which was fine for the scenery, but less so for the skies. After a few shots I went on to a place between Eschdorf and Merscheed, which despite some passing cars turned out to have a nicely dark sky. Using the ED80 (too much wind for the Newton), I was able to do single exposures of 10 minutes at ISO 1600!

I did a series of the black eye galaxy, followed by a few shots of the sombrero galaxy, and a final test shot of the whirlpool galaxy.

Using the StarAdventurer and the 10-18mm lens, I did series of the Milky Way. I added a couple of test shots with the 50mm using the 500D (Scorpius, then between Cepheus/Cassiopeia and Cygnus).

Clear sky, no urgent needs the next day. Since my office neighbor was interested, I offered to meet up in his region, thus to Donatus chapel at Beidweiler it went.

I was a bit early at just after 22h, but I went on setting up anyway - good thing too, since I could already find Polaris in the polar scope. As the wind wasn't very strong, I set up the Newton for visual observation, pointing right off to Jupiter in the south.

When the colleague was there, I showed him around the equipment, then we went on a little visual tour - Jupiter, Albireo, ring nebula, dumbbell nebula, the beehive cluster.

I then switched to the GoTo controller and activated the autoguider for a photo session. The target of the night became the Ring nebula M57, using single shots of 8 minutes at ISO800. I also did single shots of NGC6946 (spiral galaxy with nova), NGC7023 (Iris nebula), M27 (Dumbbell nebula).

Using the StarAdventurer, I first did some landscape shots using the 10-18mm lens, first without tracking (30s at 10mm), then with half-speed tracking (60s at 10mm). I then tried some shots of Scorpius using the 200mm lens, switched to the Virgo cluster. Somewhat underwhelmed by the result, I switched to the 50mm and pointed at different parts of the Milky Way, which got me surprisingly good results for the short total exposures.

I'll definitely re-do Scorpius with longer total exposure, that one looked very promising. I'll also point the Newton at the Iris nebula for good one of these evenings.

Yet another clear evening sky, no urgent meetings the day after… I chose to go to the Beidweiler Donatus chapel for a photo session. I got there rather early, around 22h, when the sun had barely set, but it was still very bright - so much so I couldn't even find Jupiter. Only shortly before 23h I could finally see some stars and find Polaris, for properly setting up the EQ6 and 8“ Newton.

My first test shots still had quite a blue tint for the background. As I was rather impatient by that time, I selected a target in the darker part of the sky, which got to be the Crescent nebula NGC 6888. I went with ISO800 and 300s exposures, planned to do 24 of them (2h), with random displace activated on the MGEN. Somewhere in the middle of that it seemed that things hang, which may (or not) just have been the repositioning interval, so I restarted things. I ended up with less shots than planned. Of course, I did flats, bias and darks.

In parallel, I used the StarAdventurer, mostly with the 50mm lens, but some shots with the old 135mm Pentacon. Targets were around the southern milky way, with Scorpius and above Sagittarius. The unmodded 500D got used for some landscape shots, also going for the milky way with the 10mm.

Meteoblue announced a clear sky, I wanted to try again for the southern Milky Way… off to Ielwen. F.S. for a change also came along, for visual observation. I planned to use the ED80 on the NEQ6 to shoot the Lagoon and Trifid nebulas, and the LXD75 with the 200mm lens for Antares/rho ophiuci.

My new power plant had a different mind - after I had both mounts set up and aligned, suddenly the NEQ6 didn't get any more juice. I ended up combining the old power plant with the NEQ6 and used the 200mm lens on the StarAdventurer.

Next problem - the sky wasn't clear to start with, and it only got worse. I switched from Lagoon/Trifid to the Iris nebula, later the Whirlpool galaxy, and from Antares region to the Veil nebula. In all cases, clouds did soon come up, and I had to break off my series.

Hardly any exposure times, halos around the brighter stars… and correspondingly disappointing results. On the brighter side - I do know I can properly picture M8, M20 and M21 using the ED80 with the TeleVue reducer/flattener, provided a really clear sky. I also know I want to use the 8” f/5 Newton for the Iris nebula. And I want to do the Veil nebula properly with the 200mm lens.

It's been a long while without CS, only the previous evening was pretty clear, but the moon was almost full and I had to get up in the morning, so…

A partial eclipse of the moon was announced for today, already past its half on moonrise just after 21h. I went upstairs with my good tele lens to take some pictures, clouds permitting. It turned out the moon rose above neighbor's roofs. Just after the moon cleared that roof, it started dipping behind clouds… which it again cleared just long enough for a couple of pictures, before moving behind some more clouds and the eclipse coming to an end anyway. The moon being just above the horizon, seeing was pretty bad. Using an only 400mm lens without a tripod didn't help with image quality either. I still got a couple of decent enough results.

Let's hope the weather will play along for the Perseides night on August 12th…

No luck on 12th for the Perseides evening of AAL / Naturmusée, all cloudy. But, on sunday 13th, the sky promised to be rather clear. I went off to the Donatus chapel at Beidweiler, to set up the LXD75 with one 450Da and the “new” 40mm lens, and the StarAdventurer with the other 450Da and the 10-18mm lens (used at 10mm). I also had a normal tripod along, with which I used the 500D. With the 500D, I found an issue with my recently acquired 17-70 Sigma lens: it won't let me take a fully manual exposure with autofocus and stabilization turned off! So I had to switch to my oldest 18-55 kit lens, which worked just fine.

I pointed the 40mm lens at the Perseus double cluster, which got me the Heart and Soul nebulas plus the general region between Cassiopeia and Perseus. On one of the pictures, I got a large red blotch, not sure where from - my red light maybe, either shining sideways into the lens, or from back into the viewfinder. I'll have to look into a light blocker for the viewfinder (usually found on the camera's strap).

I used the 10-18mm for some landscape plus milky way shots, and did a series towards zenith of the central milky way band. Some of the pictures got me Perseids, but there weren't many - and there were a lot of trails from airplanes and satellites.

Using the 18mm setting of the 18-55mm, I did 20s shots of the surroundings. These also got me a number of weakish perseids, but also of the milky way and landscape around.

Towards midnight, I used the 200mm on the 500D to picture the rising moon, also the Junglinster radio antennas. As not only the moon started to shine brightly, but also clouds came up, the evening was done.

There'd been a couple evenings with clear sky, which I couldn't use. Finally I just had to get out there, to Ielwen. On the way, there were cloud banks… on site, I was right at their edge. Zenith was clear, lower elevations not really. In the end, the equipment ended up full of dew, wet really.

I used the Newton on gamma cas, the SA with 50mm lens on the swan. Pretty much every optical surface fogged over, with the exception of the Newton's main mirror - few usable individual exposures.

Test of the ASI120MC.

First test of the ASI 120MC on the Moon, using the FH80. Suprise, even using this very small scope, the moon surface didn't fit into the ASI's picture. So it's going to be mosaic'd close-ups in the future.

At last, an AAL meet again - first time in ages that weather permitted it… or so it seemed. As we got there, clouds came up, obscuring anything but the full moon (supermoon at that).

I took a series of DSLR pictures through the ED80, which I stacked and post-processed for quite a nice end result. The CR2s went through PIPP, stacking tried with both autostakkert and registax, sharpening in fitswork, final processing in gimp 2.9.