Here's a version with higher contrast, but with less detail more artifacts. I ran it through Astrometry. net and, as you can see, two fainter galaxies ICs 4277 and 4278 (magnitudes 15.4 and 15.7 respectively) are lurking in the background.
Friday, April 20, 2018
Reprocessed M51
Thanks to Ken, who showed me how to make an object mask in Photoshop! This is reprocessed version of the image posted in my last update. Amazing what a little tweaking will do!
Here's a version with higher contrast, but with less detail more artifacts. I ran it through Astrometry. net and, as you can see, two fainter galaxies ICs 4277 and 4278 (magnitudes 15.4 and 15.7 respectively) are lurking in the background.
Here's a version with higher contrast, but with less detail more artifacts. I ran it through Astrometry. net and, as you can see, two fainter galaxies ICs 4277 and 4278 (magnitudes 15.4 and 15.7 respectively) are lurking in the background.
Friday, April 6, 2018
It's Galaxy Season--M51
Summer in the Northern Hemisphere means it's galaxy season. For the past few clear nights, I've been imaging galaxies in Ursa Major as they clear the trees on the east side of my property. This image of M51 was taken under conditions of below-average seeing and wind in my Bortle 8 skies. I had to throw away a number of subs, and ended up stacking 104 x 20s integrations--some of which I should also have thrown away. The result, however, was pretty decent, as the resulting image shows:
M51 is an interesting object. The main spiral galaxy is attended by a companion, NGC 5195, which appears to have passed through the main disk of M51 twice. A gas and dust-rich tidal bridge connects the two objects. The interactions between the two galaxies have triggered a burst of starbirth in the central regions of M51. NGC 5195 has a massive black hole which is "burping" huge waves of gas. M51 is also Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole.
M51 is an interesting object. The main spiral galaxy is attended by a companion, NGC 5195, which appears to have passed through the main disk of M51 twice. A gas and dust-rich tidal bridge connects the two objects. The interactions between the two galaxies have triggered a burst of starbirth in the central regions of M51. NGC 5195 has a massive black hole which is "burping" huge waves of gas. M51 is also Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole.
Messier 78
I always feel that M78 gets overlooked by many amateur imagers, who tend to concentrate on other objects in the Orion Molecular Cloud (like M42, M43 and the Running Man Nebula complex). M78 is a similarly complex group of nebulae, consisting of NGC 2064, 2067, and 2071. Two stars, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, power the nebula and give it its reflected glow. The complex also contains young T-Tauri stars in the process of formation, as well as 17 Herbig-Haro objects.
This image was captured with the 8 inch f/3.9 newt and a Mallincam AG1.2G; it is a stack of 30 or so images. The imager did an excellent job of capturing the subtle colors in the cloud (it reminds me a little of a Turner painting). Below is the Astrometry.Net platesolved image, which labels some of the features of interest.
This image was captured with the 8 inch f/3.9 newt and a Mallincam AG1.2G; it is a stack of 30 or so images. The imager did an excellent job of capturing the subtle colors in the cloud (it reminds me a little of a Turner painting). Below is the Astrometry.Net platesolved image, which labels some of the features of interest.
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