ROAST ::

August 21. There’s been a run of cloudy nights recently, but despite a bad forecast for tonight it stayed clear until about 3am.

A new target first, and a hard one. The galaxy C 30 in Pegasus, and the nearby Stephan’s Quintet:

C 30 is an unbarred spiral galaxy, and unusually the bright core is rotating in the opposite direction to the main spiral arms. Faintly visible above it are some of the “fleas”, a group of unconnected and much more distant galaxies. It’s also known, oddly, as the Deer Lick Group, apparently after the Deerlick Gap in North Carolina — hence the “fleas” monicker, I imagine.

Stephan’s Quintet, a grouping of galaxies, is at lower left. It looks like three galaxies here — the lower one is actually a pair of interacting galaxies, while the fifth is very faint and just below the main group; it’s not really visible in this image, and anyway is not physically connected to the main grouping.

This target needs many more exposures and some extensive processing to bring out more detail.

Details:
Target: C 30 (NGC 7331)
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, Astro filter, perfect EQ
Time: 2026-08-21 21:36..01:08
Integration: 3hrs (180×60secs, +12 failures), gain 80
Conditions: Clear, Bortle 6
Processing: PhotoDesk equalisation, gamma, crop

Next up was a first go at the California Nebula:

Does it look much like California? Well, perhaps … it looks more like the head of a crocodile to me. Its official name is NGC 1499, and it’s an emission nebula in Perseus. The red H-alpha glow is caused by the highly energetic star Menkib, Xi Persei, just off-screen at bottom right.

Details:
Target: NGC 1499 (California Nebula)
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, Duo-Band filter, perfect EQ
Time: 2026-08-22 01:27..02:20
Integration: 50mins (50×60secs, no failures), gain 80
Conditions: Clear, Bortle 6
Processing: PhotoDesk equalisation, gamma

Finally I tried the Pleiades again, but unfortunately the clouds started moving in so the shoot was abandoned.

And so to bed…