iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 11/10/2026

The Triangulum galaxy last night. I'll follow up with a hydrogen imaging night which will add a lot of interest, but it's pretty in broadband! 🔭

0212

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 05/10/2026

Start with the wizard's hat and then see him "casting" a few big blobs to the right... :) It's awesome

010

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 04/10/2026

Club Log expedition charts have been modernised (to match the mobile app). Changes now live.

360

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 03/10/2026

The Club Log mobile app now includes DX-World forthcoming activity calendar. Many thanks to the amazing team at DX-World for the collaboration, and their generosity sharing what's expected in the world of DXing! www.dx-world.net App download links: clublog.org/app.php

060

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 02/10/2026

A clear night gave me the chance to finish the Heart Nebula project. Last night I got the extra data needed for the Hubble palette. The blue region is oxygen, red is hydrogen, and the green is sulphur.

1286

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 22/09/2026

The Heart Nebula - IC 1805 - last night. This is currently using the 'Foraxx' palette - when I have the extra data I'll make a Hubble palette version. Picked this as it's currently on a perfect overhead path - the best! Slightly amazed how bright and big the nebula is.

071

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 16/09/2026

Conditions last night were just about perfect, so I put the telescope out to capture Andromeda in narrowband. You can really see the hydrogen regions (red) where stars are forming. ✨

28011

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 09/09/2026

This might look a bit more 'familiar' although I'm not always keen on chucking colours around. But it's kind of beautiful...

1110

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 09/09/2026

Andromeda, our nearest neighbour last night. M31 is so vast I can only just fit it into a frame on my scope (with a reducer!) It's six times bigger than the moon by width - if we could only see it by eye. We see a smudge on dark nights. Also M32 (above) and M110 (below). @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

2649

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 24/08/2026

This object is a little too small for my setup (a large newtonian reflector would do it justice). It sits in a beautiful region, though, and I do get to see M51 in the scene (the cluster to the lower left) as well as some other clouds of gases. This was a tougher target than I was expecting!

050

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 24/08/2026

I spent a few extra nights taking just SII+OIII narrowband on NGC 7635 (the Bubble Nebula). Using the Hubble palette, this lets the true nature of the oxygen shell show in blue. 21h of imaging - but great to see it not looking pure red!

18915

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 14/08/2026

A closer look just at the hydrogen here

080

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 14/08/2026

I had a good look at the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7365) over the past few nights while it was clear. It sits in a huge hydrogen alpha region (red) - so much so there's only a little finger of black space here. It's not sensor dust! 🤯 A monochrome rig to show the oxygen in blue. Wonderful to study!

6426

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 14/08/2026

Club Log app update: iOS app is queued for review and release with Apple. The Android build is coming together and is a native (Kotlin) rebuild, starting to look good! There is so much excitement for this (I've never seen a beta fill so fast). Load tested the server layer...🫣 👍

290

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 28/07/2026

Palm Pilot for me. But even earlier, a Sharp PC1403 - which is this...I still love it I have to say. For whatever reason, even if I just need a calculator, I reach for this. The keys are brilliant and it does everything without fuss (and a lot more, most of which I've forgotten!).

240

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 28/07/2026

This is pretty wild. 22 languages - a lot of QA to do...

110

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 18/07/2026

Building a watchOS app that connects to NINA and shows your guiding stats in rel time. Relives me from spending the small hours looking at a laptop display, seems really useful. Anyone interested in using this? It'll be in the app store and free soon

270

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 14/07/2026

As hoped, I added about 2.5h of narrowband (hydrogen and oxygen) data to this stack with another short imaging session. I'd love to boost this up to 12h+ but it will have to wait. Still, hopefully if you couldn't see the wizard before, you can now?

180

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 10/07/2026

Ah! That *does* look good. Have a great night, this should be amazing.

030

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 09/07/2026

The Wizard nebula last night. Summer's short nights are a major constraint - this is from just 3 hours of data, which is honestly barely enough for a faint DSO like this. A great test run of NINA though. I will add some extra hours to this soon.

3282

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 09/07/2026

Turning all my astronomy needs into a macOS app. Mac silicon outperforms (e.g. 60 megapixel FITS load instantly!). With this taking shape, I'm now adding data science ideas with UIs which I can't find in mainstream apps, like this one - grading frames for SNR contribution.

030

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 07/07/2026

Sensor tilt from a FWHM heat map done. This is quite an interesting project now...

020

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 05/07/2026

Writing a little tool to explore field flatness. I chose this image from my 14mm wide angle lens as a test - very cool. Building a little macOS app for all my needs and this is going in for sure

160

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 04/07/2026

Having a go using NINA for the first time (moving away from ZWO). It's been a steep learning curve! I had a quick test run of just 20 minutes on the Pelican Nebula. Surprised to see quite a bit of detail- normally these take hours and hours to stack. Looking forward to longer nights later in summer.

3251

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 24/06/2026

Sheep are fearless! Near Neist Point

350

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 22/06/2026

Impressive jet fly by today!

1100

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 24/05/2026

The moon in the summer twilight last night

210111

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 22/05/2026

Added light and dark mode (plus automatic with local time) and unified the styling of the new DX Dashboard and Livestreams. This is clearer to me but also works on mobile devices correctly, which was a major gap before.

390

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 21/05/2026

New Club Log feature beta test. clublog.org/dx-dash/C21TS (replace C21TS with your own callsign to try it). Looking for bugs/issues with this

2100

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 13/05/2026

Decent stargazing! Short nights put the brakes on any serious imaging, but it's lovely out there.

190

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 21/04/2026

Looking at clear skies and a beautiful Moon

2101

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 08/04/2026

Bode's Galaxy (14 hours). A lovely galaxy that's just within reach for my refractor telescope ✨

1101

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 03/04/2026

Looking after this wonderful hound for the weekend. Nice to have a dog around again!

1110

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 28/03/2026

AM5N performance is fantastic when conditions allow!

010

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 22/03/2026

M105 under a very clear sky that went rather damp around 1am. About 4 hours of stacking - a few extra galaxies here I'm hoping @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social will ID for me

1143

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 19/03/2026

Caldwell 38 Needle galaxy, plus its companions. This is about seven hours of data, taken fully automatically including all sorts of meridian flipping, focusing and recalibrating guiding all done while I was asleep. Helpful for a work day! @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social what do you see?

2171

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 18/03/2026

Ah, it's a shame the ICC colour profile has been stripped, as it looks flat. Here's the image mapped to sRGB...

071

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 18/03/2026

Took my last chance to get a solid set of images of NGC2024 last night, as it was so amazingly clear. This beautiful patch of sky is more or less vanishing for spring, not to return for some time, so I'm glad I did 🤩 (126/f7, about 4 hours of subs)

1213

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 13/03/2026

Markarian's Chain - ridiculous number of galaxies in a 1 degree patch of sky. I only spent 1 hour on this, so much more to do....what a spectacular region!

041

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 12/03/2026

Last year, I caught a glimpse of M42 (the Orion Nebula) and went down the rabbit hole of astronomy and astrophotography. It's been so much fun getting to a strong setup capable of gathering enough light to reveal the cosmos. Here's a then and now comparison in two images!

$M42 on a 900mm refractor, ZWO cooled camera, guided mount$ M42 taken on a 200mm f2.8 lens, Sony Alpha 7 with a basic tracking mount

4358

Michael G7VJR @clublog.org · 11/03/2026

J51A is probably the most intense, most workable expedition there's been. Any mode, any band. Truly impressive!

360