Galaxy Images

Bodes Galaxy

Bode's Galaxy

M81

NGC 3031

Ursa Major

Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

11/04/25

Last night was the last session after a whole week of clear night time skies. Almost unheard of. The almost full Moon was 90° away so I'm pleased to have got a half decent image. I've used the same flat frames for a week now and there is evidence of new dust halos. The dwarf Galaxy in the corner is the Garland Galaxy, NGC 3077. M82 is just out of frame.

84 x LRGB @ 3 minutes. 4 hours 12 minutes total.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, OA Guiding, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pegasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

The Splinter Galaxy

NGC 5907

Draco

Edge on Spiral Galaxy

06/04/25

48xLRGB @ 4 minutes, 3 hours total

This edge on Spiral Galaxy sits in the constellation of Draco the Dragon. Captured under clear skies but the mount seems to forget how to guide when the humidity rises so I stopped the sequence after 3 hours when the reading reached 99%. This is probably a better target for the 9.25" SCT.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, OA Guiding, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pegasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

Canes Venatici Galaxy

NGC 4395

Canes Venatici

Spiral Galaxy

04/04/25

80xLRGB @ 4 minutes, 5.5 hours total

The week of clear skies continues. The Canes Venatici Galaxy has a very low surface brightness so I am pleased how this has come out. Not much detail in the spiral arms but the central bar is clearly evident. Perhaps 5 minute exposures would have been better. An Ha filter would have picked up more. The lack of guide stars after the meridian flip bought the session to an end.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, OA Guiding, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pegasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

The Leo Triplet

M65, M66, NGC 3628

Leo

Spiral Galaxy Group

03/04/25

58xLRGB @ 4 minutes, 4 hours total

This is the Leo Triplet, three spiral galaxies at different angles, Messier 65, Messier 66 and the Hamburger Galaxy. They make a nice group that fits in my 660mm FL refractor field of view. The image is upside down because that's the best balance I get on the telescope. And I quite like the anthropomorphic pareidolia effect too! Besides, there is no up and down in space, no one can hear you scream either! Captured last night, a shade under 4 hours of 4 minute exposures.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pgasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

The Pinwheel Galaxy

Messier 101

Ursa Major

Spiral Galaxy

03/04/25

60xLRGB @ 4 minutes, 4 hours total

Galaxy season is upon us and South East England is experiencing uncommonly clear night time skies. This is Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major. Another one I've done before but not in wide field. A couple of years ago there was a supernova in one of the spiral arms that was clearly visible as bright as one of the foreground Milky Way stars, but now it's faded. This is just over four hours of four minute exposures from last night captured with LRGB filters.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pegasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Messier 51

Canes Venatici

Spiral Galaxy

02/04/25

45xLRGB @ 4 minutes, 3 hours total

Messier 51, also known as The Whirlpool Galaxy is interacteracting with a companion galaxy. The pair are 31 million lightyears away in. M51 was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, using his 72-inch reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Co Offaly, Ireland, he found that the galaxy had a spiral structure, the first "nebula" to be known to have one. I went to Ireland and visited Birr Castle and the telescope, known as the Leviathan of Parsonstown for my 60th birthday. I'm always reminded of the trip when I see this galaxy! I've imaged this one before at a longer focal length but I like the wider field of view I'm using now.

Stellamira 110mm refractor, AVX mount, LRGB filters, Stellarium, Pegasus, CPWI, NINA, PixInsight.

Mirach's Ghost

NGC 404

Andromeda

20/10/24

This is NGC 404, Mirach's Ghost. It's a Lenticula Galaxy, almost lost in the glare of the bright star Mirach, 7 arc-minutes away. Captured using the 110mm APO and the ASI1600MM in LRGB. I managed 30 odd minutes of clear view over the roof tops before the 92% lit Moon rose with the Pleiades. So I captured about half the time with the Moon about 30° away. I tried 2 minute exposures and was pleased to see that Mirach's Ghost was well clear of the star's interference so the Lost Pearl can be seen as a distant Galaxy with a bright core to the right and below Mirach.

18 x 120 seconds Luminance, 6 x 120 seconds RGB. Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight.

The Draco Triplet

NGC5985, NGC5982, NGC5981

30/03/24

Draco

Galaxy Cluster

I captured almost 6 hours of LRGB but blinked it down to 2 hours 36 minutes by the time I got rid of the clouds, the condensation and the satellites.

It was a bit of a practice run. In May I'm going camping for a couple of nights in the middle of nowhere, central East Sussex, as a guest of the Orpington Astronomical Society. I've got the Coma Cluster on my list of potential targets.

The Fireworks Galaxy

NGC6946 - Spiral Galaxy

Caldwell 12

Cygnus

06/09/23

Here's Caldwell 12, NGC6946, the Fireworks galaxy. Captured over three nights this week and last week, each time packing up before the night was over, due to the high humidity causing USB connections failures!

My last attempt at this target was a couple of years ago on fireworks night!

This galaxy was one of the targets in the TSS Monthly Challenge. It also won the TSS APOD award for 11/09/23

The Core of M31 - New Mono Camera First Light Image

NGC 224

Messier 31

Spiral Galaxy

Andromeda

19/08/23

4 x luminance, 4 x red, 4 x green and 4 x blue at 180 seconds

Here's the First Light image using my new ASI1600MM and LRGB filters. It's also the first LRGB image I've captured or processed. It's also the first image I've captured with the newly re-greased CGX.

With my mount uncertainties, I chose M31, or to be more specific, the core of M31 as it's viewable from astronomical dusk to dawn without requiring a meridian flip. I set up a simple NINA sequence with no dithering, repeating until astronomical dawn. I kept it a bit too simple, I forgot to add a line for the auto focus routine! The mount took a couple of hours of calibrating and guiding assistant tweaking before it was happy to go. The guiding was poor all night, caused either by my sickly mount or the sickly seeing sitting directly under the jet stream as southern England was on the 19th. Or a combination of both.

Processed in Pixinsight after watching The Lazy Geek's My Simple LRGB Processing Workflow, an excellent tutorial.

Messier 101 + SN2023ixf

NGC 5457

Messier 101 + SN2023ixf

Spiral Galaxy and Supervova

Ursa Major

24/05/23

64 x 60 seconds unguided

A supernova was spotted in the Pinwheel Galaxy which was the incentive to capture my unfinished observatory first light image. I didn't manage to get the guide camera focussed so this is composed from 60 second unguided images. The supernova is at 10 o'clock at the start of the spiral arm. It's my first capture since August last year, a hiatus due to undergoing and recovering from radiotherapy. It's great to be back in the game!

Needle Galaxy

NGC 4565

C38

Edge on Spiral Galaxy

Coma Berenices

24/05/22

55 x 180 seconds

First time using heated dew ring. Also flocked the inside of the OTA whilst the corrector plate was off.

Camelopardalis Galaxy

NGC 2403

Caldwell 7

Spiral Galaxy

Camelopardalis

24/04/22

40 x 240 seconds

Lots of star forming regions. Needs more subs to bring out the outer spiral arms. An Awesome Astronomy suggestion.

Pinwheel Galaxy

NGC 5457

Messier 101

Spiral Galaxy

Ursa Major

16/04/22

20 x 300 seconds

First time using NINA Three Point Polar Align. Still got a soft focus and periphery aberration.

Leo Galaxy

NGC 2903

UGC 5079

Spiral Galaxy

Leo

01/04/22

18 x 240 seconds

A Sky at Night Magazine suggestion. First time sitting in the warm using TeamViewer!

Coma Berenices Galaxy

NGC 4321

Messier 100

Spiral Galaxy

Coma Berenices

16/04/21

100 x 120 seconds

First 3 hour exposure. First automated meridian flip. First PixInsight Processed image. New favourite galaxy image! I tried 180 gain and it has come out a bit noisy. The Sky Searchers forum 06/09/21 APOD

Fireworks Galaxy

NGC 6205

Caldwell 12

Spiral Galaxy

Cepheus/Cygnus

05/11/20

12 x 240 seconds

The Fireworks Galaxy, captured on Fireworks Night! It was a bit too windy for astrophotography.

Triangulum Galaxy

NGC 598

Messier 33

Spiral Galaxy

Triangulum

11/09/20

20 x 180 seconds

ZWO ASI 294MC Pro first light. 180 second exposures doesn't quite work with this one!

Bodes Galaxy

NGC 3031

Messier 81

Spiral Galaxy

Ursa Major

18/06/20

10 x 240 seconds

Canon sensor at 29°C. Should have another go at this target with the ASI294.

M61 Supernova

NGC 6205

Messier 61

Supernova

Virgo

11/05/20

10 x 300 seconds

Triangulum Galaxy

NGC 598

Messier 33

Spiral Nebula

Triangulum

18/11/19

Superman Galaxy

NGC 6960

Caldwell 44

Spiral Galaxy

Pegasus

02/10/19

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