I’ve had many clear nights recently and I’ve managed to gather just over 13hrs of data on the Western Veil Nebula aka Filamentary Nebula aka Witches Broom & Pickerings Triangle. This is a very rewarding target but is harder to get right that it seems. There’s a LOT of stars in this region which need dealing with and a lot of faint nebulosity which demands a long integration to bring out of the noise. I could spend many more nights on this but I think it’s looking ok so I’ll move on to the next target, which may be more of the Veil Nebula

Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED with Starizona Flattener, az-gti, sv220 narrowband filter, Risingcam IMX585, guided, ~13hrs of data

I decided to do an experiment this evening. I hooked my multimeter inline between my battery and my equipment. I then hooked it via USB to my laptop & logged the output. I then plotted it on a graph so I could see the effects of using particular equipment. The graph is below, but the highlights are that with camera cooled, dew heaters on & imaging, the steady state power usage is ~3.75a. Slewing can add another amp on top of that for a short period of time. My power supply is just 5a so at times I’m skirting close to the limit but I’ve not had an issue so far. My battery is 50ah so it should keep this lot running for an entire evening without problems.

It’s a frustrating time at the moment. The weather is warm but quite cloudy. Clear nights are few and far between however I managed to get 3hrs on the Dumbbell. I couldn’t quite get enough data to bring out the faint nebulosity in the “wings”. I’ll revisit as soon as I can.

Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED with Starizona Flattener, az-gti, sv220 narrowband filter, Risingcam IMX585, guided, ~3hrs of data

I had another amazingly clear night last night so I stayed up very late to get more data on the Crescent Nebula. The night was very calm, the moon had set and seeing was good. I was managing 10min subs without star trailing or overpowering the camera. In total I managed to get 2hrs worth of subs. I could have got more but at 3am I was ready for bed. I also managed to get another 3am session a few weeks later to bring the total integration time to ~5hrs

Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED with Starizona Flattener, az-gti, sv220 narrowband filter, Risingcam IMX585, guided, ~5hrs of data

I had an amazingly clear night last night so I stayed up very late finishing my Leo Triplet capture. When it went too low in the sky, I decided to move onto another target. on a whim, I decided to get a few hours on M101 Pinwheel Galaxy so I could compare against my previous effort. The results are blow. Processed with Siril using its new bayer drizzle and SPCC colour correction

Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED with Starizona Flattener, UV filter, Risingcam IMX585, guided, ~4hrs of data