North Northants Astronomy Club

17/10/2026

2006-10-16 The Soul Nebula (IC1848).
Technical difficulties aside. A gravely folded SD card was in no position to ever work again. Split clean across the circuit board. (It was only a matter of time really with the adapter I needed for the new laptop. With the card sticking out as much as it did.) Nocturnal swearing & a spare SD card from my everyday camera got me working again.
As it was such a clear night on Friday, it allowed me to get a good 4 hours, with no grumbles on this target with the Sharpstar 61EDPH mkII telescope.

We have two processes, first in Hubble palette colors. The second is processed in natural RGB palette.
As the Soul nebula is very close to the heart nebula in the sky I've added the Heart nebula form around this time last year and produced a montage as they would roughly appear as they would appear if I'd captured them in one shot.

12/10/2026

Came across this while having a tidy up on my drive, my Astro images from November 2023, taken with my Canon 700d dSLR of the Owl Nebula.

The Owl Nebula (M97) is a planetary nebula approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it is approximately circular in cross-section with a faint internal structure.

Ritchey–Chrétien (RC200) telescope - Canon EOS 700D dSLR
Image 5184 x 3456 - Camera Temperature 21 C
File type CR2 RAW
ISO 1600 - 104 subs - Exp 61.1 sec (bulb mode)
November 2023
No AI
Enjoy😀

04/10/2026

2026/09/27 & 2026/10/02. Solar System Special.
Captures with varying degrees of success using the trusty Skywatcher 200P with the ZWO ASI178MM ("full" Moon) and the QHY-5III715C cameras. (Craters and planets).

I had a rough re-work of of the Harvest Moon's mosaic session from last week that got cut short by the arrival of a extensive cloud bank during the capture of the 3rd part of a 6 panel mosaic of the then full Moon. I'll add that to the start.

Saturn is at opposition (to the Sun) at the moment, so it is as close to earth as it's going to get this year. And honestly that was the focus of Friday night's (Ok Saturday morning's) session.

This weekend I set up the 200P with the QHY-5III715C camera to try some planetary imaging, something I've not attempted in a long time. I had a practice on the Moon zooming in on Aristarchus and Clavius craters. Then concentrating on Saturn and "having a go" at Neptune and Uranus. This setup was not really up to imaging (no Barlow lens) Neptune and Uranus as the conditions were not good enough and both were fuzzy blobs dancing around the screen with the atmospheric turbulence during capture. Though I did mange some colour from Uranus. 🙄

The QHY-5III715C's 1.4um pixel size really does help grab a bit more detail with the 200P's relatively short for planetary focal length (1000mm). The results turned out at bit better than what I thought I'd got while watching the capture live. I will have to wait a few months for the next planetary opposition.

02/10/2026

26/09/2026

I've wanted one of these for ages, I've bought a Gemini auto focus for my 80Ed. 98 quid new on eBay with free delivery, I had to wait 2 weeks while it came from China. I bought some 3 mm bolts from the hardware store and I'm in the business. A little sweetie, came with a temperature probe that I need to proof. Next task is to use SharpCap FWHM auto focus thingy. It's not compatible with ZWO stuff which doesn't bother me at all.

22/09/2026

Thought I’d share my little summer project with you. It’s my capture of the Andromeda Galaxy/ Messier 31 over 4 nights, cloud permitting.
The Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) is the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated one trillion stars and spans roughly 150,000 to 200,000 light-years across. When the light left Andromeda the earliest human being were evolving in Africa.
Equipment: 6x slide-off roof panel observatory, Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED (f7.5) telescope, SW EQ6 Pro mount, GreenSwampServer, Altair 585c -5°C cooled camera with UV/IR cut filter.
Image: M31 Andromeda Galaxy, 64 sec exp, 230 subs. August and September 2026
Processing: DSS, PiPP, Affinity Photo v2.6.5, AstroFlat Pro, Dave Eagle processing workflow

23/08/2026

2026-08-07 SH2-129 Flying Bat Neb.
From the weekend before the eclipse. The first session after another "snags" session with the Sharpstar 61 EDPH-II. Better luck on the second go. I managed a full 4 hrs on this target, no snags.
The red in both pictures is supposed to resemble a bat flapping its wings. Some of will notice a faint pale blue oblong shaped outline in the centre of the bat's wings. This is the squid nebula, two for one this session. Again I tried an RGB and "Hubble" colour processing with this. The squid is a little easier to spot in the "Hubble" result.

Equipment:
Sharpstar 61EDPH Mk II ED-Triplet 275mm,
Optolong L-eXtreme 2" dual band filter,
ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser,
Skywatcher HEQ5 With rowan belt mod,
ZWO ASI533MC Pro,
ZWO ASI178MM, (Guide)

Sub Exposures:

60 X 240s Light Frames,
20 X 240s Dark Frames,
0 X Dark frames - Dithered,
20 X Bias Frames,
0 X Flat Frames,

Software:
Green Swamp Server,
Cartes Du Ceil,
PHD-2,
N.I.N.A.

SiriL,
Starnet++,
GraXpert,
Affinity Photo-2,

23/08/2026

2026/08/12. Solar Eclipse 2016
As my western horizon isn't great in Little Stanion, Myself and a few others decided to capture the 90%+ solar eclipse from the groups not-so-dark "dark site". Interesting to see it during the day.
Some tree dodging and low cloud on the horizon prevented me capturing the the complete eclipse. But I captured most of it before sunset.
Taking everything except the kitchen sink, (Backups for this and that.) I took just over 300 individual shots converted into a short video. I lost a load at the end due to that cloud. Seems to be par for the course for eclipses and me.
I've picked a few choice frames from the video at points through the event. Plus some establishing shots to capture the atmosphere of the day. Safe to say, the atmosphere was mostly hot that day. Finishing with a couple of that days "extended" sunset.

A bit late to show but, I had other commitments taking my time these past weekends.

I Had to rework the raws a few times just to boost the later half of the eclipse due to the difference in light levels as the sun neared the horizon.

Equipment:
Skywatcher ED80, 600mm,
Homemade Baader film white light solar filter,
ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser,
Skywatcher HEQ5 With rowan belt mod,
Stock Canon 1200D,


Sub Exposures:

ISO Speed 100
265 X 1/1000
Image Quality RAW
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
AF Mode Manual focusing

Software:
Green Swamp Server,
Cartes Du Ceil,
Canon Digital Photo Professional 4,
PIPP,
HandBrake,
Affinity Photo-2 (for stills),

26/07/2026

2026-07-24 SH2-86.
Sorry could not find a common name for this. A random piece of nebulosity between Cygnus (Swan) & Monoceros (Unicorn).

Attempt two at this target, after the death of the old astro laptop, I needed to do a "set-up" run with My big Newt (Skywatcher 200P) and it's Mount (Skywatcher NEQ6).
Tried this last weekend and so much had not been preset in this the software profile I had to recalibrate everything twice! First time I assigned the wrong for guidance software Everything refused to calibrate. The automatic focuser refused to talk to the software, only after a driver update. A random setting set too low also made the mount refuse to polar align.
After that last week I found out that the telescope was out of collimation just as dawn was appearing in the eastern sky. At that point I gave up, went to bed late with absolutely no pictures. My worst session.

No pain, no gain. This weekend a different matter, With all the "troubleshooting" and a long think about how I sequence the various stages of the set-up, Using the exact same gear. I had an almost "no snags" session, managing a full 3 Hrs on this target.

The first two are slightly different false colour narrowband processes. The third is a truer colour RGB process. This is a target rich in H-alpha so is naturally very red.

Equipment:
Skywatcher 200P, 1000mm,
ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser,
Optolong L-eXtreme 2" dual band filter,
ZWO ASI533MC Pro,
ZWO ASI178MM, (Guide)

Sub Exposures:

60 X 180s Light Frames,
0 X Dark frames - Dithered,
20 X Bias Frames,
0 X Flat Frames,

Software:

EQ-MOD,
Green Swamp Server,
Cartes Du Ceil,
PHD-2,
N.I.N.A.

SiriL,
Affinity Photo-2,

12/07/2026

026-07-10 Flying Dragon Neb SH2 114.
A little bit of H-alpha nebulosity just to the left of Cygnus the swan that is high in the east now.
First time out for the new astro PC after the death of its predecessor. A few software checkboxes not withstanding I got everything performing nicely. That did add just under an hour before I could start imaging, so the last few frames had to be binned because it was dawn and even the narrowband filter couldn't cope any more.
I will have to try this faint object again when I can get more dark time on it.

Equipment:
Skywatcher ED80, 600mm,
Optolong L-eXtreme 2" dual band filter,
ZWO ASI533MC Pro,
QHY 5IIC Planetary Cam, (Guide)
ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser,
Skywatcher HEQ5 With rowan belt mod,

Sub Exposures:

26 X 240s Light Frames,
20 X 240s Dark Frames,
20 X Bias Frames,
0 X Flat Frames,

Software:

EQ-MOD,
Green Swamp Server,
Cartes Du Ceil,
PHD-2,
N.I.N.A.
SiriL,
Affinity Photo-2,