ROAST :: 08 2026

August 12, a big day for astronomy here. A solar eclipse, a meteor shower, various galaxies, and first up, Comet 220P/McNaught. This is an overlay of the images taken on 11 and 12 August, showing how much the comet has moved in 25 hours:

The times are of the first frame in each case. The comets themselves look a bit different because they had different exposures, gains and mounts (which meant one had to be rotated to align the stars).

And now, the partial solar eclipse. In Leeds this ran from 18:12 to 20:03, with the maximum coverage of 92% of the Sun at 19:09.

Here I’ve collaged a selection of the 429 pictures the Mini took, using its Burst mode of a photo every 15 seconds. As I couldn’t get off work I had to set the scope up on the roof of the library (with permission!) and set it running during my break.

There were a couple of minor problems. The focus went a bit off at one point (probably due to the Mini running very hot), but you can refocus during Burst mode so could be fixed. And at about 19:15 I noticed that the Sun (still being eclipsed) was about to disappear behind a building, so I halted the shoot, moved the camera and restarted capturing. I only lost about 2 minutes, so not a disaster.

The final collage image shows the Sun disappearing behind the roof garden of a local pub; I wasn’t able to get the last stages of the eclipse.

The central image is a higher resolution picture of the Sun taken at quarter to six, just before the main shoot started. Sadly there are only a few small sunspots.

Later was the maximum of the annual Perseids meteor shower. Here’s a star trails covering 4 hours from about 11:30:

We caught a couple of Perseids, plus sporadics, aircraft and satellites. Here are a couple of close-ups of some of the meteors. The scope was pointing straight up.

And so to bed…

August 10, and another comet. This is 220P/McNaught, a periodic comet which recently exploded and brightened enormously (see Aug 9 entry), from magnitude 17 up to 7 or so:

It’s quite distant so isn’t as good a target as C2025R3 back in April. But it’s higher in the sky.

Details:
Target: Comet 220P/McNaught
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, Astro filter, Alt-Az
Time: 2026-08-11 02:26..03:15
Integration: 37mins (150×15secs, +10 failures), gain 70
Conditions: Clear, Bortle 6
Processing: PhotoDesk equalisation, gamma, crop

And so to bed…

August 8. Despite very poor conditions, here’s a first go at Messier 33, the Triangulum Galaxy:

Clouds were constantly scudding across the sky and there was a lot of high haze, but there were enough gaps to let the Mini build an image; the edges of the image illustrate the problems. Using the Astro filter helps a lot with haze and thin cloud.

This galaxy in the Triangulum constellation is the third largest in the Local Group, behind Andromeda and our own. And despite the conditions, the pinkish colouration of the emission nebulae in the spiral arms is starting to become visible. So it’s a start.

Details:
Target: Triangulum Galaxy (M 33, NGC 598)
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, Astro filter, perfect EQ
Time: 2026-08-09 00:25..04:20
Integration: 3hrs 4mins (184×60secs, +28 failures), gain 70
Conditions: Poor (haze, clouds), Bortle 6
Processing: PhotoDesk equalisation, gamma

And so to bed…

August 7, and a clear night at last.

So here’s the Ghost Nebula IC 63 again. The previous attempt used the Duo-Band filter, but last night I used the Astro one. The last update to the Mini’s software allowed you to stack images with different filters, so this is the combination of both:

This has brought out the emission and reflection parts a bit better. But I’m still not happy with the processing.

Details:
Target: IC 63 (Ghost Nebula)
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, perfect EQ
Megastack:
1: Duo-Band filter
Time: 2026-07-30 22:47..01:28
Integration: 2hrs 19mins (139×60secs, +8 failures), gain 60
Conditions: Very clear, slight wind, Bortle 6
2: Astro filter
Time: 2026-08-07 22:22..01:28
Integration: 2hrs 35mins (155×60secs, +16 failures), gain 70
Conditions: Very clear, Bortle 6
Processing: PhotoDesk gamma, equalisation, crop

The previous attempt at the Soul Nebula was cut short by clouds, so I had another go and megastacked them:

Details:
Target: Soul Nebula (Westerhout 5, Sh-2 199, LBN 667)
Equipment: Dwarf Mini, Duo-Band filter, perfect EQ
Megastack:
1: Time: 2026-07-18 01:10..03:30
Integration: 1hr 24mins (84×60secs, +45 failures), gain 60
Conditions: Hazy, then cloudy, Bortle 6
2: Time: 2026-08-08 01:40..03:59
Integration: 2hrs 7mins (127×60secs, 0 failures), gain 60
Processing: PhotoDesk equalisation, gamma

And so to bed…