Tag: Spiral galaxy

Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy lies 7.22 megaparsecs (23.5 million light-years) away from us and has a diameter of 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 light-years). Its companion, NGC 5195, is easily observed by amateur astronomers, and both galaxies can be seen with binoculars.

TelescopeNewtonian 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1170 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 2600MC @-10°C
CorrectorTeleVue Paracorr 2″
FiltersAntlia RGB
Exposure66x180s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2024-04-14

And here is the capturing process recorded:


NGC 6744 Galaxy

NGC 6744 is a galaxy in the constellation Pavo. The galaxy has beautiful spiral arms, which attracted my attention and I spent 4 hours collecting the light coming from this 28 million light-years distant deep space object.

TelescopeMeade 10"
Aperture254 mm
Focal length2097 mm
MountMK 100K
AutoguidingMGEN 240 mm
CameraZWO 071 @-10°C
CorrectorTS 0.67 reducer
Filtersnone
Exposure78x180s, Gain 95, bin 1x1,
Date2022-05-28

M77 Galaxy


Messier 77 is a spiral galaxy located in constellation Cetus and it is approximately 47 million light-year away from Earth. Due to its diameter 170 light-year, this galaxy is one of the biggest objects of Messier Catalogue.

The galaxy in the bottom right corner is called NGC 1055, which together with M77 creates binary system.

The picture is a stack of 20 pictures, each 3 minutes long, i.e. only one hour of integration time. This is obviously not enough for such deep space object, but I wanted to capture another DSO this night. Moreover, I was not able to wait till 1 o’clock, when the street lamps are switched off, because at this time, this galaxy was nearly reaching the horizon.

Now it’s time to slew to M78 Nebula.

Technical details:

TelescopeNewton 254/1000 mm
Aperture254 mm
Focal length1000 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
CameraZWO 071 Pro @-20°C
CorrectorTS-Optics 2" 3-element MaxField
FiltersHutech IDAS LPS-D2
Exposure20x180s, Gain 94, bin 1x1,
Date2018-12-13

NGC4565 Needle Galaxy

Needle Galaxy is located constellation Coma Berenices The light from there traveled 40 million years, because the galaxy is approximately 40 million light years from Earth. Actually, what we are looking at is 40 million years old picture. The needle shape is caused by its orientation towards our Milky Way Galaxy (the plane of the galactic disk is perpendicular in our view).


M96 Galaxy

M96 is a spiral galaxy located in constellation Leo. It is approximately 31 million Light-years far from Earth and it has same size and mass as our home – Milky Way. Neighboring galaxies M95 and M105 will be captured next time.


M33 Triangulum Galaxy

Triangulum Galaxy is our neighboring spiral galaxy in distance only 3 Million light years from the Earth. It has diameter approximately 30 light years, which means that it’s 3 times smaller than our home – Milky Way Galaxy. Last year I tried to capture some photons coming from there, but the outcome was not so great, therefore I was waiting one year and here is the outcome:

m33-triangulum-galaxy-2016-10-31-30c-65l-300s-8rgb-200sb2x2-fl1000