Messier Images

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 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. 

The Orion Nebula

Messier 42

NGC 1976

Orion

08/01/25

The Orion Nebula M42 is a diffuse nebula in Taurus just below Orion's belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible with the naked eye. My mount refused to guide so I captured this one with 30 second exposures. 144 x 30 second LRGB. 1 hour 12 minutes total exposure. Humidity and frost ended the session again.

Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight 1.9.2. 

Messier 46

M46

NGC 2437

Puppis

08/01/25

One more to add to my Sky Searchers Astronomy Forum Messier quest. M46 is an Open Star Cluster but it has the additrional bonus of a small Planetary Nebula too. My mount was unable to guide for some reason and the plan was to capture 30 second exposures but I forgot to change the exposure times in the NINA sequence so this image was captured using 3 minute unguided exposures. 18 x 180 second LRGB. 54 minutes total integration.

Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight 1.9.2. 

The Phantom Galaxy

Messier 74

Pisces

29/12/24

I did 15XL 5XRGB @ 2 minutes each then copied them all so that PI could stack them. This one would have been better in the SCT but I used the refractor since it is on the pier! So with that and the limited integration, I was quite pleased with how it came out.

Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight. 

The Pleiades

Messier 45

Taurus

29/11/24

I set up just to calibrate my guiding as I put the wrong focal length into PHD2 last time! And mist was forecast for 18:00. The guiding calibration went well and the mist stayed away so I managed another go at M45. This time I used two minute subs and got a better result than the last attempt using one minute subs. My NINA sequence was capturing 9xL, 3xR, 3xG, 3xB for five iterations. Then I packed up, not wanting to subject everything to any more 99% humidity. I got almost three hours integration. 

Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight. 

The Omega Nebula 

M17, NGC6618

Sagittarius

30/07/24 

M17 was sitting at or below 25° altitude so my expectations were not good. But I was well chuffed with how this came out, all things considered. I might try getting some more data on this one to give it the attention it deserves. 30ish x 120 second frames.

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.

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!

NGC 6705

Messier 11

Open Star Cluster

Scutum

13/08/22

9 x 180 seconds

Set up for 50 exposures. Clouded out after 14, used just 9.

NGC 6853

Messier 27

Planetary Nebula

Vulpecula

29/07/22

6 x 240 seconds

Set up for 50 subs then cloud cover. Waited an hour for the sky to clear. Managed 6 subs.

NGC 6254

Messier 10

Globular Cluster

Ophiuchus

18/07/22

3 x 120 seconds

Nice accurate collimation setup. Managed just 3 subs then cloud cover!

NGC 6205

Messier 13

Globular Cluster

Hercules

15/07/22

29 x 120 seconds

Captured 40 subs, used 29 of them.

NGC 5904

Messier 5

Globular Cluster

Serpens

02/06/22

25 x 120 seconds

2" total PA error! Waited till after the meridian flip to start! Fairly sure now the periphery star egginess is due to guide scope flexure.

NGC 5457

Messier 101

Spiral Galaxy

Ursa Major

16/04/22

20 x 300 seconds

First time using NINA TPPA. Still got a soft focus and periphery aberation.

NGC 6705

Messier 51

Interacting Spiral Galaxy

Canes Venatici

25/03/22

13 x 180 seconds

This was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy by William Parsons at Birr Castle County Offaly Ireland. I went there for my 60th birthday!

NGC 6720

Messier 57

Planetary Nebula

Lyra

21/10/21

? seconds

Not a good target for the winter months.

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

NGC 598

Messier 33

Spiral Galaxy

Triangulum

11/09/20

20 x 180 seconds

ZWO ASI 294MC Pro first light.

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.

NGC 6205

Messier 61

Supernova

Virgo

11/05/20

10 x 300 seconds

NGC 1976

Messier 42

Diffuse Nebula

Orion

21/01/20

11 x 300 seconds

Best Image to date.

NGC 598

Messier 33

Spiral Nebula

Triangulum

18/11/19

NGC 6853

Messier 27

Planetary Nebula

Vulpecula

22/08/19

NGC 6205

Messier 13

Globular Cluster

Hercules

10/05/19

20 x 30 seconds

This image won 3rd prize in the Stargazers Lounge 30 seconds and under Image competition. The prize was a mug. The postman broke it.

NGC 6720

Messier 57

Planetary Nebula

Lyra

08/01/19

This was my first ever proper deep space stacked image. I was really chuffed with it at the time!