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A few more images with my C8
I imaged a few more targets the other night, in addition to the double quasar in my previous post. This is my best shot of the whirlpool galaxy yet.
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Whirlpool Galaxy
I decided to focus on M51 this time. I also experimented with my camera in monochrome mode to reduce chroma noise. The wide shot is about 70 minutes of exposure and looks nice and smooth, but subtracting the background gradient reveals how little dynamic range there really is.
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Orion and the Whirlpool
Managed to get a few images in a shorter night with my SCT. Was having mount trouble unfortunately. M87 was a new observation. I was hoping to resolve the jet at the core, but wasn’t getting enough stars to align repeated exposures. Looks like I accidentally saved out my only image with star markers enabled.
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Whirlpool Galaxy
Center (RA, Dec): (202.486, 47.222) Center (RA, hms): 13h 29m 56.587s Center (Dec, dms): +47° 13′ 19.555″ Size: 10 x 7.03 arcmin Radius: 0.102 deg Pixel scale: 0.787 arcsec/pixel Orientation: Up is 60.3 degrees E of N
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Whirlpool Galaxy
Center (RA, Dec): (202.460, 47.196) Center (RA, hms): 13h 29m 50.368s Center (Dec, dms): +47° 11′ 44.489″ Size: 21.1 x 15.8 arcmin Radius: 0.220 deg Pixel scale: 1.24 arcsec/pixel Orientation: Up is 275.5 degrees E of N
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DSOs at 70mm
I decided to stick to my little scope again while learning my new mount, and managed to capture several objects. I think I’ve got it figured out well enough to move back to my big scope next time. With the light polluted skies here 70mm isn’t enough to get much out of fainter targets.
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Whirlpool Galaxy
Got about 20 minutes of exposure for M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. About 31 million light-years away. M51 is the big spiral galaxy, and M51b is the smaller galaxy interacting with it. I’m very excited about the amount of detail in the spirals and the different color visible in the cores.
