During the last week of July 2026, good weather was expected for almost the entire week.
For the first time, I worked with both telescopes on two mounts in parallel – or rather, let them work in parallel.
The Crescent Nebula had been chosen as Object of the Month for July at my club, the Astronomische Vereinigung Vulkaneifel, and as a Caldwell object it was still missing from my catalog.
I exposed for three nights, but then discarded the data from the first night. I had noticed a visible misalignment (collimation error) and corrected it before the second night.
High-resolution on Astrobin:
The annotated image:
Session Details:
| Telescope | Vixen VC200L |
| Focal Length | 1800mm |
| Erecting Lense | internal |
| Camera | ToupTek SkyEye24AC |
| Filter | Baader LUM CMOS Optimized 50.4mm |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro, Belt and Hypertuned |
| Guiding Equipment | APM 240mm |
| Guiding Camera | QHY 462C |
| Photography Date | 07/28/2026, 07/29/2026 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | RGB: 80x300s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, DARKS |
| Sensitivity | GAIN 100, Offset 125 |
| Processing Date | 08/01/2026 |
| Software Stack | StellaVita, PixInsight, Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Koblenz, Germany |