NGC6802 and the Coat hanger asterism, Neptune and Saturn at opposition, Andromeda Galaxy, California nebula and Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)

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NGC6802 and the Coat hanger asterism: During the clear night of the 25th September 2025, I tried an experiment and shot 2.5 hrs of SHO of the area of the Milky Way where the asterism "the Coat Hanger" and the open cluster NGC6802 in Vulpecula lies and another 0.5hrs of RGB for the stars. I was surprised at how much nebulosity and dust this imaging run picked up. Data were acquired with an Altair 60EDF fitted with a 0.8 x FR using an ASI 533MM Pro camera and EFW, with integration and processing done in Pixinsight and finished in Adobe Light Room.

Neptune and Saturn at opposition: With Saturn and Neptune having just past opposition and being fairly close together in the sky, I thought I'd try and see if I could get both in the same frame, however the FOV of the 533MM pro camera on the Altair 60EDF was slightly too small; even with the 0.8 FR fitted, requiring two separate imaging runs to be done to compile a two pane mosaic of the pair. The runs comprised 12 minute exposures for each panel which of course over exposed both planets, but did record some of their moons. With Saturn's rings almost closed with respect to our viewing vantage point from Earth, even exposing for planet surface detail with such a small scope would not have revealed the rings or much surface detail, but at least I had recorded a "snapshot" of these two ice giants together in the sky.

Andromeda Galaxy (M31): It was nice to "see" our nearest galaxy once again with this 54 minute RGB/Ha exposure taken with an ASI 533MM pro camera attached to an Altair 60EDF doublet refractor fitted with  0.8 x FR. Data integrated and processed in Pixinsight using the continuum subtraction method of combining the Ha with RGB data.

Part of the California nebula (SH2-220): I had originally set out to do a two pane SHO mosaic of the California nebula due to its large size, with an hour for each panel, however only managed 50 mins on the first panel and just the OIII channel on the second panel due to a cable snag issue, so was thwarted. This is just panel 1 therefore of this splendid target rich with hydrogen, sulphur and oxygen. I hope to complete panel two on the next available clear night and compile a mosaic of the whole nebula.

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon): For the fifth consecutive night, I was able to take more data of this comet gracing our morning skies in the constellation of Lynx. I shot 60s and 120s exposures, with 13 and 28 minutes total integration time respectively. The comet appears to be brightening as at passes nearer to the sun and should hopefully make a good sight when it will be at its closest approach to Earth on the 21st October.

Chris Bowden