Month: April 2018

M59 and M60 Galaxies

Galactic season continues. This night I managed to capture many galaxies in one shot. Specifically, it’s Messier 59 Galaxy, located in the center, Messier 60 Galaxy at the top, two visually smaller galaxies – NGC 4606 and NGC 4607, located at the bottom right and NGC 4637, NGC 4638, located in the center left of the picture. All these galaxies are located in constellation Virgo and they are member of Virgo galactic cluster.

The picture is a stack of 54 pictures, each 5 minutes exposure time, i.e. 4.5 hours of total integration time.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-15°C
CorrectorGPU
FiltersIR UV cut
Exposure54x300s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2018-04-21

M85 Galaxy

Messier 85 is an elliptical galaxy located in constellation Coma Berenices. It is approximately 60 million light-years away from Earth and it has diameter 125 light-years, which makes it similar to our home galaxy Milky Way.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-15°C
CorrectorGPU
FiltersIR UV cut
Exposure60x300s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2018-04-18

M98 Galaxy

Messier 98 is a spiral galaxy located in constellation Coma Berenices. This galaxy is easy to find, because it is located only 6° to the east from the bright star Danebola. M98 is approximately 44 million light years away and it has a blue shift. This means that it is approaching us at about 140 km/s. This means we have still some time till the collision occurs.

Technical details:

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:ZWO ASI071MC Pro
Corrector:GPU
Filters:UV IR cut
Exposure:54xRGB 300s
Date:2018-04-17

NGC2903 Galaxy

NGC2903 is a spiral galaxy located in constellation Leo and it is approximately 30 million light years away from Earth. This galaxy is in many ways similar to our home galaxy Milky Way. For example the diameter is 80 000 light year, which is slightly smaller than the diameter of Milky Way.

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:ZWO ASI071MC Pro
Corrector:GPU
Filters:UV IR cut
Exposure:40xRGB 180s
Date:2018-04-13

 


M49 Galaxy

Messier 49 is an elliptical galaxy belonging to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Magnitude 8.4 makes this galaxy the brightest in whole Virgo Cluster. Due to its brightness, it’s possible to observe it just by using binoculars. Distance of M49 from Solar system is 52 million light-years.

The picture is a stack of 40 photos with exposure time 5 minutes each. This means more than 3 hours of exposure time.

Technical details

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:ZWO ASI071MC Pro
Corrector:GPU
Filters:UV IR cut
Exposure:40xRGB 300s
Date:2018-04-11

M100 Blow dryer galaxy, NGC 4312 Galaxy

Messier 100 is a spiral galaxy sometimes called Blow Dryer Galaxy. It is located in the constellation Coma Berenices and it is approximately 55 million light-years far from Earth. The diameter is 107 000 light-years, which makes it comparable to our home galaxy Milky Way. M100 is accompanied by small satellite galaxies NGC4323 and NGC4328. The bigger galaxy on the left is called NGC4312.

Finally, nice weather arrived, and what else to photograph during the spring than some galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The picture is a stack of 40 images, 5 minutes of exposure time each. The star shapes are not as they should be. I was testing a new camera ZWO ASI071 MC Pro and I placed the UV IR cut filter far from the sensor, in order to avoid reflections. The filter is not perfectly attached, so probably it’s tilted. I will have to improve that.

Technical details:

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:ZWO ASI071MC Pro
Corrector:GPU
Filters:UV IR cut
Exposure:40xRGB 300s
Date:2018-04-06