The Orion Nebula — Messier 42 — in the Sword of Orion lies about 1,344 light years distant from Earth. Photo by James Guilford

Taking advantage of a couple of strings of clear nights, I set up my telescope — now more usable than ever — and did a bit of imaging. I’m pleased to report that the telescope is more usable than ever thanks primarily to two things:

1. Automatic GPS time/date/location via a GPS module
2. PoleMaster — a device and software that makes polar alignment easier and more accurate than I’ve ever managed before.

Mars during its opposition, or close approach to Earth, October 16, 2020. A tiny bright dot at the bottom is the planet’s polar ice cap.

I made some efforts at photographing Mars during its 2020 opposition — close approach — and managed “okay” pictures. That is to say, the resulting images were the best I’ve ever done but still short of what I’d like. I’m still working on technique and technologies and this may be the best I could manage given the relatively short 1,800mm focal length of my scope!

Star cluster Messier 2 — Messier 2 or M2 is a globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746, and is one of the largest known globular clusters. It contains about 150,000 stars and lies 55,000 light-years distant.

Around the same time I turned the telescope to try imaging bright star cluster Messier 2. There was a slight but noticeable improvement there over what I’d managed before.

In early November I set up the scope at night, using the polar alignment system, so that I would be ready for solar photography the next day. Of course I observed other objects that night but then I noticed Orion rising through the bare trees. I stayed up much later than I’d planned but when Orion’s Sword came into the clear I captured what turned out to be the very best images that I have ever made of the Orion Nebula! The brilliant Trapezium star cluster at the heart of the nebula got overexposed but I was thrilled how much of the area’s nebular cloud showed.

Full-disk image of our Sun with sunspot group AR3781 showing clearly. Sun is entering a more active phase of its cycle, for months there were few, if any, sunspots to observe.

A close-up view of sunspot AR2781, as recorded the afternoon of November 9, 2020.

I’m also very pleased with my efforts to image the Sun where a huge sunspot group (Active Region 2781) had appeared. The results were very good, using my telescope with Canon EOS 6D Mark 2 camera body attached for full-disk images. To protect camera (and eyesight) I used an AstroZap brand full-aperture white light film filter. Then I switched over to the little ASI178MC planetary camera; its smaller sensor providing a much-magnified effect. While not the best I’ve seen, I’m pretty pleased with this batch of solar images.

Telescope set up for solar imaging. The Canon EOS 6D Mk. 2 camera is in silhouette at the base of the scope while the little red ASI planetary camera rides above it. The blue box shades a laptop computer for use with the ASI.

So, even under our light-polluted skies, I’m able to manage some decent astrophotography. I’m sure that with time, practice, and clear winter skies I’ll get many more amazing views.