I haven't been out for most of August so I thought I would give another crack at the Crescent Nebula since I haven't photographed this target since I got my EQ mount. Of course I picked a terrible night for this considering the Moon is almost full.

I am not very happy with this shot so I cranked up the contrast a bit to hide some imperfections and artifacts. This one will definitely go into the revisit list. I haven't really mastered narrowband filters and SharpCap. This was taken with the Optolong L-Ultimate. The Moon was definitely not helping tonight.

While I let the light gather on the Crescent Nebula, I was scanning the skies in The SkyX and noticed Saturn was back and over the house. Although I've come to the beliefe that it's pretty much a waste of time to photograph a planet before it reaches the meridian and/or before opposition I figured I would stay up a little longer and take a shot. Seeing wasn't too good and there was a lot of humidity in the air but I managed to get a few shots before the clouds rolled in.

I also noticed Neptune was nearby so off I went a little south from Saturn. Neptune is a pain in the ass to find when you can't see it in the sky so finder scopes never help, let alone using a camera with a tiny sensor which even with GoTo it's really a NoGo. As I was about to give up I was slewing my scope up and noticed a blue streak on my laptop monitor go by. I slewed back a few degrees and there was the blue fuzzy dot on my screen. I managed to take a few minutes of it right before I was clouded out.

Since I haven't taken a picture of a planet since last year, I totally forgot how to setup for it including the FireCapture settings. Then I came inside and completely spaced out on how to even process the images. Luckily we are entering planet season and I'll have lots of opportunities to practice. I am really looking forward to Mars later this year and its opposition in 2025 since I haven't been able to get a nice shot of it.

Last year I built an AllSky camera that I was hoping would work here in my light polluted sky but it's not very impressive with all the light spilling in from Whittier Blvd. I did set it up tonight to see if it still worked. Here is a timelapse of my session. Just look at that moon dogging me all night!

Tonight I learned that it pays off to reset your polar alignment when it's not dead on. I started imaging and noticed my alignement was off. Of course having access to the PoleMaster makes it a 5 minute adjustment but once I got realigned, the session went a lot smoother.

Also a note for myself. When taking flat frames using a narrowband filter, it's best to take the flat frames with your dark frame active to avoid gradients when you start imaging. Another thing I mis-understood while reading the internet was that you shouldn't take flat frames in SharpCap with your darks active. I've found that and many other things I've read in the forums not to be the case. So always remember to take the advice with a grain of salt and experiment on your own. If it works for you then go with it and ignore the "rules"!