M 63 / M13 / M12 / NGC 6888

 05/11/2026 -- No moon (until after 03:00) and few (if any) clouds... great opportunity for wide band imaging.  Noted M63 is in an perfect location (fingers crossed) for collection this evening.


Seeing forecast for 05/11-12/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) suggesting good views for this evening / morning.
Started with an initial polar drift alignment with PHD2 running on the Odroid C4.  First iteration: 10.19'. Turn azimuth adjustment knob left.  Over-corrected (-6').  Next iteration, brought this down to <1'. 

Set up the scheduler for M 63 and the sequence for 0C camera, 20x80s exposure, gain of 285 and offset of 24 (as usual).  The Indi Allsky backyard camera showed a pseudo sky quality metric of ~4960 t 22:25 (great sky quality).  The Weewx outdoor weather station showed:

"time": "2026-05-11T22:25:00-0400",
"generator": "weewx 5.3.1"
"temperature": {"value": 50.95862068965519, "units": "°F"},
"dewpoint": {"value": 44.67915782750027, "units": "°F"},
"humidity": {"value": 79.0, "units": "%"},
"heat index": {"value": 49.4674827586207, "units": "°F"},
"wind speed": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
"wind gust": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
"wind chill": {"value": 50.95862068965519, "units": "°F"}

Ultimately, overnight there were 75x80s light frames collected for M 63 from approximately22:30 through 02:30 with a long gap (as usual) for the meridian flip.

Ekos Analyze tab for light frame collection on 05/11-12/2026 for the 75x80 light frames.

Indi Allsky backyard camera measurements for 05/11-12/2026 showing outstanding skies with no clouds. Star count (white, top) and pseudo sky quality metric (red, bottom).


Weewx outdoor weather measurements for 05/11-12/2026 for temperature (top), wind speed (middle) and humidity (bottom). Outdoor temperature changed significantly overnight...dropping from 60's to lower 40's F. Only a couple mild, brief wind events were noted overnight.


05/17/2026 - No moon, but some clouds... making an additional attempt at M 63 collection.  Skies at 22:00 are blah... and initial attempts at getting the OTA oriented for polar drift alignment faced challenges with plate solving (few stars, strong sky background). After one false start, was able to align and start PHD2 drift alignment. Initially off by ~11'... turned to the left an dachieved an alignment error of -2'.  Called it good.  Set up the sequence file to use 5C as the camera temperature (since current temperature is 74F (and so nearly 25C difference in temperature...which would be alot for the cooler). Started the scheduler at ~22:14.  The Indi Allsky backyard camera pseudo sky quality metric (jSQM) showed ~7700 (not great at all).  Current conditions from weewx:

     "time": "2026-05-17T22:10:00-0400",
     "generator": "weewx 5.3.1"
     "temperature": {"value": 73.98437500000003, "units": "°F"},
     "dewpoint": {"value": 63.15422158246213, "units": "°F"},
     "humidity": {"value": 69.0, "units": "%"},
     "heat index": {"value": 74.32581250000001, "units": "°F"},
     "wind speed": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
     "wind gust": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
     "wind chill": {"value": 73.98437500000003, "units": "°F"}

Overnight, 38x80s light frames were collected...however several early on lacked guiding (need to be removed from the stack).  

Ekos Analyze tab for 05/17-18/2026 showing a huge gap in the middle of collection (again) due to collection at zenith with meridian flip and other problems with M 63 collection.

Indi Allsky backyard camera metrics for 05/17-18/2026 with star count (top, white) and pseudo sky quality (jSQM) (bottom, red) showing just one major cloud passing by over night.  But overall, sky quality was relatively poor (especially given the lack of moon light).


Weewx backyard weather measurements for 05/17-18/2026 for temperature (top), wind speed (middle) and humidity (bottom). Temperatures were relatively high overnight...with a low of ~70F at midnight. No wind or gusts overnight.

05/18/2026  - few / no clouds... no moon... another opportunity for broad band imaging.  Given the difficulty with M 63 near the zenith, attempting to move to M 3 to start with... and then continue with M 63 later in the evening. Finally, set up M 57 for a final attempt at a task in the very early morning hours. 

Started a polar drift alignment... and initially found this to be ~ -9'. Turned to the right... bringing the alignment to 3.7' (over correction).  Swung back to -3'.  Called it good.

The jSQM (pseudo sky quality metric) at 22:00 showed ~7125...about what the sky looked like yesterday. Not great.  The Weewx outdoor weather station showed elevated temperatures:

        "time": "2026-05-18T22:00:00-0400",
        "generator": "weewx 5.3.1"
        "current":
        "temperature": {"value": 79.47586206896554, "units": "°F"},
        "dewpoint": {"value": 65.75560178755694, "units": "°F"},
        "humidity": {"value": 63.0, "units": "%"},
        "heat index": {"value": 80.0844482758621, "units": "°F"},
        "wind speed": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
        "wind gust": {"value": 0.0, "units": "mph"},
        "wind chill": {"value": 79.47586206896554, "units": "°F"}


Seeing forecast for 05/18-19/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarksky (bottom) suggesting few (if any) clouds until ~04:00 and reasonable transparency expected.

05/29/2026 - After days of rain and clouds... finally an evening with no clouds, but there's a full moon that's visible all night... so even narrow band would be challenging... so simply doing some throw-away collection & testing.


Seeing forecast for 05/29-30/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarksky (bottom) showing a full moon overhead all night...but no clouds.  
Started with a polar drift alignment with PHD2 running on the Odroid C4... with initial error of -3'.  Turned slightly to the right. Ended at 0.5'.

Performed an initial focus using the focus tab manually to bring the OTA close before starting any autofocus routine...since it was badly out of focus.

Noted at 22:20 that the lower stars in Hercules and Rastaban (in Draco) were buried in tree leaves.  The minimum altitude for collection in the North East is now ~52-55 degrees with the growth of new trees and new limbs. 

06/03/2026 -- moon rises after midnight at ~85%...but no expectation for clouds.  So...setting up for an additional night of collection against M13.  First...had to watch an episode of Andor Season 2.  Then... double checked the polar alignment. After three adjustments (starting from 16', then 7', then 0.16'), launched the scheduler.  By this point (12:33), the moon was raising the the jSQM (pseudo sky quality metric from the Indi Allsky backyard camera) rose from 4800 to 13000 (in moon-mode).


Seeing forecast for 06/03-04/2026 from meteoblue (top) and clear dark sky (below) who agree -- no clouds...lots of moon after midnight.

Ultimately, only three light frames were captured.  Unclear exactly what ended collection, but after dithering, alignment (plate solving) did not succeed and collection did not restart.  The scheduler shutdown the camera cooler and parked the mount just after 03:15.


Weewx outdoor weather station measurements for 06/03-04/2026 showing almost no wind or gusts over nigh, no dew issues and temperature dipping down to ~55F.

Indi Allsky backyard camera star count (white, top) and pseudo sky quality metric (jSQM, below in red) for 06/03-04/2026 showing clear skies overnight with elevated jSQM values from the moon after moon rise but holding steady overnight.

Ekos Analyze tab for the 3x80s light frame collection on M13 on 06/03-04/2026 showing a failure to restart collection after dithering with plate solving in the alignment tab that appeared to fail to complete.

06/05/2026 - a few low level clouds expected...and the moon is still up and over 60%...but after the last disappointing session, trying to see if light frame collection can work ok.  Set up the normal PHD2 polar drift alignment with an initial error of -9 (turn to the right). After a couple of adjustments, brought this down to ~0.6'.  Next, performed an initial focus stepwise in the focus tab. Inserted an additional task in the scheduler before M13 -- NGC 5317.  Oddly, the scheduler put this task at 22:29...and so manually started the alignment module, guider and sequence tab to start collection early.  The Indi Allsky backyard camera showed a jSQM of 5279 (not terrible) when collection began just after 22:00.


Seeing forecast for 06/05-06/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) with an indication of some low and mid-level clouds from midnight through 3am along with a large moon from 12:30 through morning.
Before the scheduler launched, discovered a repeated problem during guided light frame collection for NGC 5317 where the mount would stick...no guiding.  Went out to check cables... did not spot any reason why the mount would be sticking.  Did note one remaining cable (Meade zero shift autofocus cable) that was not tied up with the other cables and was hanging down from the OTA.  Fixed this... and re-tried PHD calibration and guiding.  No luck.  Shutdown everything (mount, Odroid) and reset the tracking mode to "equatorial north' on the CGEM-DX hand controller...  and found the same issue.  Moved to M13... and problem solved.  Really odd.  After removing NGC 5317 from the scheduler and restarting... collection began as usual...guiding was fine.

Ultimately, 1x80s light frame was collected for NGC 5317 at 22:06 (EDT) on 6/5.  40x80s M 13 light frames were collected between 23:30 to 12:58 (EDT).  Finally, 3x120s light frames for NGC 6888 using the dual band filter were collected between 02:56 and 03:08 on 6/6.  


Ekos Analysis tab for collection on 06/05 - 06/2026 for M 13 (top) and NGC 5317 and NGC 6888 (below)
Conditions overnight were mixed with the Indi Allsky backyard camera showing several sets of clouds moving through around 02:10 and then again around 03:05 and 03:35. None impacted M13, but the NGC 6888 collection may have been interrupted by the first set of clouds around 03:05.
Indi Allsky backyard camera star count (top, white) and pseudo sky quality (red, bottom) showing three sets of clouds moving through after 02:00.


Weewx outdoor weather station measurements for 06/05-06/2026 for temperature (blue, top), wind (blue, middle) and humidity (bottom).  Shows not wind events and low probability of dew overnght.


06/19/2026 -- Back from NOI concert at Carnegie Hall in NYC.  Clear skies and the moon at 34% but setting just after midnight...suggesting a good night for observations.  Reseated connections for the guide cable at the camera and mount end...and worried about the new extension cable for the handset after experiencing repeated issues with the mount stopping guiding during the last couple sessions.  


Seeing forecast for 06/19-20/2026 from meteoblue (top) and cleardarkskies (bottom) suggesting a good evening for observations.

Initial polar drift alignment remarkably showed an initial error of near zero.  Likely a first, ever.  During the polar drift alignment, witness no issues with the mount sticking or failing to guide (pointed near the equatorial horizon and the meridian.  Eventually, after several minutes of drift, error crept up to ~-2'.  

Consulted Kstars and noted M12, M13 and NGC 6888 would be useful targets (but not M63).  Set up the scheduler for M12 and NGC 6888 with the UV/IR filter with the chiller set to 5F.
 
Found a problem where PHD2 had been left with the drift alignment window open... and so only one initial frame was collected before the mount drifted beyond 2'...and capture was suspended.  Took this opportunity to try switching back to the internal guider in Ekos from PHD2 (just as an experiment). Cleared calibration data from the internal guider to force calibration and did some initial testing to see if the internal guider basically worked.  

Noted that the internal guider is set to GPG (RA only guiding) and the guide errors are just barely below the 2" limit...with most of the error in RA.  Reset to hysteresis for both RA and DEC to see how this fared in comparison.

After a range of attempted meridian flips (all of which failed and restarted four minutes later), found that the mount was again stuck...not tracking.   Turning tracking on and off made no difference.  Noted that Ekos tripod tab shows "pier side: West (pointing East) as the current position.  Checked outside and noted that the OTA was not crashed into the tripod...but was close.  This is likely enough to cause the built-in crash protection to stop tracking.  Again, parked the mount and tried again.  After several attempts (park, slew, not tracking), gave up and removed M13 and M12 from the schedule...leaving NGC 6888.  This tracked fine.  No issues with the mount failing to track.  So ... clearly... the problem is imaging anything at / past the meridian.  Not a problem with the motors or gears in the mount.  

Restarted the scheduler with PHD2 as the guider for NGC 6888.  Skies at this point (02:30-ish) were remarkable...with Indi Allsky jSQM metric below 4000.


Weewx outdoor weather station measurements for 06/19-20/2026 with elevated temperatures overnight (down to 65F) and a few instances of very light wind. Likely free from dew.

A remarkable set of metrics from the Indi Allsky backyard camera for 06/19-20/2026 with star count (white, top) and pseudo sky quality metrics at historically superior levels (below 4000 most of the night).


Ultimately, after restarting the scheduler with the external PHD2 guider (which does tend to outperform the Indi / Ekos internal guider), only a couple NGC 6888 light frames were collected.  The system then performed a dithering operation, and collection never resumed.  The scheduler shut the mount and camera chiller down normally just after 03:15.


An additional sad set of Indi / Ekos Analyze tab results... showing continued failure to guide for targets approaching the meridian. The top trace includes PHD2 and internal guider examples and the bottom trace is from just PHD2 on NGC 6888.  While its clear there are no hard mechanical problems with the motors or encoders in the mount (it can guide and collect correctly at times), the mount (or Indi/Ekos) is definitely stopping tracking when the mount approaches the meridian and does not perform a flip correctly.  Even after repeated attempts to park the mount and restart collection.





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