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September Astrophotography Highlights UK and NI

This month’s tip: check the lunar calendar! As some of you may remember, last month I planned a camping trip to a dark skies site (Bortle Class 2) in Cornwall (as you’ve probably guessed by my surname, my ancestral fatherland). Whilst the nights were mostly clear, amusingly I forgot to check the lunar calendar, and for the four nights we were away, we had lovely dark skies for all of a few minutes until the Moon graced the horizon. It was so bright it was like trying to sleep in daylight in the tent! Anyway, despite my teenage daughters moaning that it wasn’t dark, I thought I would have a go at photographing a star cluster.

Caroline’s Rose (NGC 7789) is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia, discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel. Through a telescope, its dense swirls of stars are threaded with dark lanes of interstellar dust, creating a pattern that many observers liken to the layered petals of a rose seen from above (however, you’ll have to imagine these, as the moonlight was too strong to capture them!).

It lies roughly 7,600 light‑years away and is thought to be about 1.6–1.7 billion years old, making it an unusually mature open cluster. That age means many of its original hot, blue stars have already evolved off the main sequence, leaving behind a mix of cooler yellow and red stars, along with a sprinkling of blue stragglers that stand out against the warmer background.

Camera: Canon 500D - astro moded. 

Telescope: Altair Astro 70ED Telescope (420mm) + 0.8 reducer.

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro 

Filter: Optolong L eNHance

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120mm-s

Guide Scope: SVBony 30mm (f4) 

Computer: ZWO ASIAIR pro

Method: 

Lights: 30 x 120s ISO 1600.

Darks: 10 x 300s.

Flats: 10

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril for photometric colour calibration, and StarNet++ for star removal. Stretched, recompiled, and edited in Photoshop.

September sees targets like the Great Orion Nebula appearing late in our night sky, with the Milky Way core vanishing for another year from our northern latitudes as it sets below the horizon in the west. The shorter days mean longer astro sessions, so provided the skies stay clear, you can expect loads of content here! Right overhead this month we will see the Andromeda Galaxy and the gems found in Auriga, like the Flaming Star, Tadpole, and Spider Nebulae. With Taurus rising in the east in the early evening, we also have the opportunity to image the Crab, Hind’s Variable, and Spaghetti Nebulae too!

So what are you waiting for? Get your telescope out and join me in this intergalactic adventure!

Kit update:

This month I have acquired a new camera, the wondrous ZWO ASI585MC Pro. Seen as an entry-level CCD camera, it punches well above its weight. At its heart is Sony’s IMX585 CMOS sensor which, whilst only 8.3 megapixels, has tiny pixels at just 2.9 µm. I believe this is a perfect pairing for my Altair Starwave 70ED.

Its two‑stage thermoelectric cooler can drop the sensor temperature dramatically below ambient, taming thermal noise for long‑exposure imaging. The back‑illuminated design and generous full‑well capacity help preserve detail in bright regions while still teasing out faint nebulosity. Zero amp‑glow circuitry means your dark frames stay clean, even at higher gain or multi‑minute exposures. As a testament to this, all the images you see in this blog taken with this camera have zero calibration frames! That’s not to say they aren’t required, they are, but you can get away without them, at least in my opinion.

One thing I love about this camera is that it can cope with 47 frames per second (FPS), which makes it perfect for lunar and planetary work too. In fact, that’s what its older brother (ASI585) was designed for. Before, if I wanted to attempt imaging any of our fellow solar system satellites, I would need to switch out my camera and, because my planetary camera wasn’t ZWO, I also had to use my laptop and the hand controller for the mount. Now I can do all of these things with just one camera.

The detail in the nebulosity is quite amazing, largely because of those smaller pixels. Once again, the RMS error of my guiding shows its head. Before, I could get away with an RMS error of 2.5 or lower, but now I need to be at 1.47 or lower! That’s the next enhancement to my rig I wish to tackle. Sadly, whilst an AM5 would be my dream solution, for now at least, I shall explore alternatives to reduce this further, so watch this space! (Excuse the pun, it was fully intended!)

Lunar

I was to annoyed with myself to capture any Lunar images this month, but now I have a new camera, you can rest assured I shall be sharing some next month!

Visit Moon phases Calendar

Deep Sky Objects

Like a child in a sweet shop, having a new camera on my mount made it very difficult to stick to the rule of one target a night. For months I had been dreaming about what images I might be able to capture with this new kit, and as such, I couldn’t control myself. Whilst the Canon 500D will always be on hand for wide‑field work, the ASI585MC Pro is much more cropped in due to its small sensor size, which in a way offers a level of magnification.

The Cygnus Wall

A striking, sculpted ridge of gas and dust within the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) in the constellation Cygnus (which you will have seen in the June edition of this blog). I think it resembles a mountainous coastline, but on a scale that defies imagination, roughly 20 light‑years from end to end.

One area, in particular, looks to me like a lady riding a moped at high speed through a washing line! For sure, this image could do with a few more hours on it, but I don’t think it’s too bad for 46 minutes!

This region is a hotbed of star formation. Ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive young stars is eroding and shaping the dense clouds, causing them to glow in vivid emission lines of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur. The interplay of bright ionised gas and dark dust lanes gives the Wall its dramatic, high‑contrast appearance in astrophotography.

From Earth, it lies about 1,500 light‑years away, close to the bright star Deneb.

EXIF

Camera: ZWO ASI585MC Pro. 

Telescope: Altair Astro 70ED Telescope (420mm) + 0.8 reducer.

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro 

Filter: Optolong L eNHance

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120mm-s

Guide Scope: SVBony 30mm (f4) 

Computer: ZWO ASIAIR pro

Method: 

Lights: 23 x 120s Gain 252 (Unity).

Darks: 0

Flats: 0

Bias: 0

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril for Photometric Colour Calibration and StarNet++ for star removal. Stretched, recompiled and edited in PhotoShop.

Eagle Nebula (M16)

Around 7,000 light‑years away in the constellation Serpens, the Eagle Nebula is a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas and dark dust, lit and sculpted by the intense radiation from a cluster of hot, young stars embedded within it.

Its most famous feature, the Pillars of Creation, consists of towering columns of dense gas several light‑years tall, slowly being eroded by stellar winds and ultraviolet light. Inside these pillars, pockets of material are collapsing under gravity, giving birth to new stars.

Spanning roughly 70 by 55 light‑years, the Eagle Nebula is both a nursery and a demolition site, a place where the same forces that create stars also tear apart the clouds that hide them.

EXIF

Camera: ZWO ASI585MC Pro. 

Telescope: Altair Astro 70ED Telescope (420mm) + 0.8 reducer.

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro 

Filter: Optolong L eNHance

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120mm-s

Guide Scope: SVBony 30mm (f4) 

Computer: ZWO ASIAIR pro

Method: 

Lights: 30 x 120s Gain 252 (Unity).

Darks: 0

Flats: 0

Bias: 0

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril for photometric colour calibration, and StarNet++ for star removal. Stretched, recompiled, and edited in Photoshop.

Back of the Pelican’s Head (Pelican’s Head Nebula IC 5070)

Just across the black nebulosity between the North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, at the back, as I imagine it, of the Pelican’s head, is a very interesting region where these tentacles of dust stretch out into the cosmos. I like to think these are dust plumes being drawn towards newly forming stars.

EXIF

Camera: ZWO ASI585MC Pro. 

Telescope: Altair Astro 70ED Telescope (420mm) + 0.8 reducer.

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro 

Filter: Optolong L eNHance

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120mm-s

Guide Scope: SVBony 30mm (f4) 

Computer: ZWO ASIAIR pro

Method: 

Lights: 20 x 120s Gain 252 (Unity).

Darks: 0

Flats: 0

Bias: 0

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril for Photometric Colour Calibration and StarNet++ for star removal. Stretched, recompiled and edited in PhotoShop.

Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

Our Milky Way’s largest and closest spiral neighbour, sitting about 2.5 million light‑years away in the constellation Andromeda. To the naked eye under dark skies, it appears as a faint, elongated smudge, but in reality, it’s a sprawling city of roughly a trillion stars, accompanied by a retinue of dwarf galaxies like M32 and M110.

Its tilted spiral arms reveal lanes of dust, clusters of young blue stars, and a bright central bulge where older stars dominate. The galaxy is moving towards us, and in several billion years, it’s expected to merge with the Milky Way, reshaping both into a single, larger galaxy. Assuming the human race lives that long to see this event, due to the vastness of space, we probably wouldn’t notice the merger and the stars would simply pass by each other!

EXIF

Camera: ZWO ASI585MC Pro. 

Telescope: Altair Astro 70ED Telescope (420mm) + 0.8 reducer.

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro 

Filter: Optolong L eNHance

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120mm-s

Guide Scope: SVBony 30mm (f4) 

Computer: ZWO ASIAIR pro

Method: 

Lights: 23 x 120s Gain 252 (Unity).

Darks: 0

Flats: 0

Bias: 0

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, Siril for Photometric Colour Calibration and StarNet++ for star removal. Stretched, recompiled and edited in PhotoShop.

Next Month

I intend to return to the rule of quality of sub‑frames over quantity of targets! I’ll be focusing on capturing some galactic wonders in greater detail.

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By Jonathan Penberthy on 28/08/2025

Jonathan Penberthy

Cosmic Shutter Seeker and Star Programmer

Jonathan Penberthy is the Cosmic Shutter Seeker and Star Programmer at Park Cameras, with over 20 years of experience as a software engineer. His career journey has spanned industries, but a move to Park Cameras sparked a passion for astrophotography. Jonathan’s interest began while working on a lens selection app, leading him to explore the night sky with a Canon 7D. When he’s not programming or photographing the stars, he enjoys sailing and navigating by the cosmos. Learn more on his profile page.