M108

[Peter Reader]

Hi everyone,

thought I'd post my effort at capturing M108 last night. Was hoping to get m97 in there as well but I think I've missed it...

This was my first time DSO imaging for a long time and out of excitement decided to brave my exposure up to 1minute subs. Only managed to capture 35 of these, 31 of which got stacked. I think the stars are just about acceptable...?

Comments very welcome!

[NickK]

Getting deeper with those longer exposures!

If I'm right (using stellarium which isn't the most accurate), the three bright stars in an L at the top with defraction spikes are HIP 54835 (nearest M108), 54709, 54765. Looks like you have very faint galaxy just off 54709 (about 3cm away at 7o'clock) too. This isn't listed in stellarium :/

M108 mag 10.10, just off the top of the photo there is the owl nebula (M97) at mag 11.20.

[Peter Reader]

I can also see a faint fuzz in the area mentioned. If anyone could name this it would be much appreciated. Thanks for the info Nick.

If I get another go at this area and manage to get the Owl nebula, is it possible to process that image and then stack this image onto it? I'm not sure if my current combination of scope and camera are giving enough field of view to get both in the same frame... but I will try. I think FOV should be 1.22 ish. This makes it possible to frame both M108 and M97 in the same shot in Stellarium...

[NickK]

It's possible to mosaic, although you'd have the two sets of exposures with some black space around it due to alignment.

[Demonperformer]

Peter, that is a nice shot - some nice detail on the galaxy for only just over half an hour of data

Nick, I think you're correct about the bright stars. Curious, nothing marked in CdC at that position either.

[Peter Reader]

It's the Reader Galaxy I hadn't thought of doing a mosaic but it seems like a good idea. Thanks for the comments guys!

[Cloudwatcher]

You should be able to get both objects in the same field.... I did so at the beginning of May..... with the camera at more or less right angles to your capture.

I've tried to align,as near as possible,my image with yours and added M97 as a separate layer in the attached.

[NickK]

Peter, that is a nice shot - some nice detail on the galaxy for only just over half an hour of data

Nick, I think you're correct about the bright stars. Curious, nothing marked in CdC at that position either.

However google sky has a better (NASA) shot of it:

Google Sky

DSS gives:

http://stdatu.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_search?v=phase2_gsc2&r=11h10m30.0s&d=55o10m8.6s&e=J2000&h=5&w=5&f=gif&c=none&fov=NONE&v3=

[Peter Reader]

Thanks for that Cloudwatcher. Looks like I only just missed it!!!

Never heard of google sky before. I'll checking my images with this in future for sure.

Is it worth trying to get the Owl when I'm limited to 60s exposures? It's pretty damn faint so will it show up at all?

[NickK]

Google sky is ok for some things but the majority of the time (check out m81) are not as good as amateur images posted here!

here's the other galaxy I can see by HIP 54835

[ollypenrice]

I reckon you'll squeeze them both on then you can add a portion of your existing M108... They might need to be corner to corner.

Olly

[Peter Reader]

Will report again when I try. Thanks chaps!

[NickK]

Ok, found the identity for the 'Reader' galaxy - UGC 06211

Heaps of info on it here: Your NED Search Results

Apparent magnitude:

z (SDSS Model) AB 13.762 +/- 0.005 asinh mag

Nice

[Peter Reader]

Wow that's a very faint object! Thanks for the info Nick!

[Tom How]

That has got some nice detail in the galaxy and good tight stars - however, I suggest you do some research into bias, darks and flats to polish the results up - hopefully getting rid of the low frequency colour gradients and the glow in the corners.

[Peter Reader]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't take darks for this one as I didn't think it would be worth it (only 30 minutes). When I add to it I will definitely do some darks.