Messier 64

The Moon was no issue on 2018-05-12-13, since the solstice is very near and the astronomical dawn started earlier than the rise of the not yet new moon. The seeing was below average, and it was windy, but I managed to image the Black Eye Galaxy, Messier 64, gathering 15x240sec, 11x90sec with my usual equipment, N 150/750, Baader MPCC Mark III, Canon 1100D mod, HEQ5, at ISO 1600, the rest of the frames, almost half falling victim to the wind.

The object itself is fairly small for this equipment, measuring only 1/3 of the moon’s diameter, and the camera has a small resolution sensor – only 12MPs which though otherwise ok (large pixels gather more light, smaller guiding errors don’t really show up), leaves very little room for cropping.

M 64, NGC 4826 [galaxy in Com] Black eye galaxy, Feketeszem-galaxis 8.4^m ø10′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm, 800mm, 1000mm, 1200mm

(tovább…)

M 106 and NGC 4217

The known location, the known setup, after six month of unfavorable weather, with clear hours at impossible times for a working class hero – same field trip as before. I acquired 9×5 min of light at ISO 1600.

The main objects on the image, sorted by brightness:

M 106, NGC 4258 [galaxy in CVn] 8.7^m ø18.6′ [wiki] [simbad] 750mm, 1200mm

NGC 4217 [galaxy in CVn] 11.6^m ø5.2′ [wiki] [simbad] [photo-planner]

NGC 4248 [galaxy in CVn] 13.2^m ø3′ [wiki] [simbad] [photo-planner]

NGC 4231 and NGC 4232 (the twins)

NGC 4226

UGC 7356 (the faint one near M 106)

(tovább…)