Galaxy Images

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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