A little warmer, but still a cold (low 30’s) and mostly clear night. There were a few high clouds early on, but these cleared up around 7:30 PM or so. A bit more of the waxing Moon, but still not enough to really cause issues. During this session I captured the Flaming Star Nebula or IC 405.

I had originally planned to point the scope at the Christmas Tree Cluster, but it was still pretty low in the ENE and does not really get high enough to get out of the light pollution wash in that area of the sky until well after 9 PM. I’ll plan to get some light from there later in the month.

Primary (Imaging)	Secondary (Guiding)
Scope: Astro-Tech AT66ED with .8 Focal Reducer (320mm – F/4.8) Filter: ZWO Duo-Band Ha/OIII Filter Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro, Cooled to -10 C Focuser: Gemini Autostar Focuser Mount: Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro	Scope: SVBONY SV165 30mm F/4 Guide Scope Camera: Orion Star Shooter Autoguider (OSSAG)
Telescope Control, Image Acquisition, and Image Processing Software
Equipment Control and Imaging Software: NINA/PHD2/ASCOM on a Mini-PC Processing Software: Siril’s Interactive Companion (Sirilic), PixInsight

Earlier in the day I took the scope off the mount and adjusted the drag on the focus tube. Much more secure and the focus should not slip. After dark I ran the Three-point Polar Alignment. The scope was still pretty well aligned from the night before, so just a couple minor adjustments were needed. Then I ran autofocus a few times while at the scope to make sure I had not over done it with the drag adjustment, seemed to be fine and no issue getting focus.

The NINA Sequence kicked off at 8:15 PM and ended just before 2 PM. Collecting 5 hours of light from IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula. IC 405 is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation of Auriga. It is about 1500 light years from Earth and it is located in the same area of the sky as the Tadpole, Spider, and Fly Nebula which I captured some photons from earlier in the week.

This is 100 x 180 second exposures at 121 gain, 30 offset, and bin 2×2. Stacked and calibrated using Sirilrc and then processed in PixInsight.

There was some weirdness in the corner of this that was produced when I ran StarNet to remove the stars. Used the Seti Astro Script Blemish Blaster which fixed it right up (Thanks for the tip Tony). The Tadpole Nebula, IC 410, is just off the top of the frame.

I am a few days into the free trial of PixInsight, but there is no doubt I am going to buy this amazing tool when the trial is up. So many features and functions, still so much to learn, but the results of my processing is definitely improving just using some basic workflows.

One cool utility in PixInsight is the AnnotateImage script which uses plate solving to identify the area of the sky and annotate objects within the image.

Based on the forecast that was probably the last clear night for at least the next few days. It looks like we have a better chance of a cloudless night toward the middle to end of the week. Getting a bit more comfortable with letting the NINA sequence run unattended throughout the night.

Looking forward to the next session… clear skies.