Just a few days before there would again be no astronomical darkness for the next few weeks because of summer (a fact that does not exactly make me love summer πŸ˜…), the nights were supposed to become cloud-free once more. Since I only had about 6 h of sufficient darkness per night, I decided to use all three nights for a single target in order to collect as much exposure time as possible: the Gamma Cygni Nebula in Cygnus, with the star Sadr at its centre (therefore also simply referred to as the Sadr Region).

In total, since dithering and the meridian flip cost valuable seconds or minutes, I ended up with 13 h of exposure time. I had hoped for more signal in the oxygen spectrum, but, as I noticed during processing, I was not quite that lucky. Still, I think the yield was pretty good.

  • Date: 22–25 May 2026

  • Start time: 23:00

  • Starting temperature: 16 Β°C

  • Moon phase: waxing 38–61 %

  • Catalogue number: IC 1318

  • Common name: Gamma Cygni Nebula

  • Magnitude: 7.4 mag

  • Type: emission nebula

  • Angular size: 50′ x 30′

  • Right ascension: 20h 22m 13,7s

  • Declination: +40Β° 15β€² 24β€³

  • Scope: Askar SQA55
  • Corrector: –

  • Filter: Antlia Triband RGB Ultra
  • Camera: Nikon Z6a
  • Mount: AZ-EQ6
  • Guide camera: ASI120MM
  • Post-processing: PixInsight