Realm of the Galaxies (From Camberwell) Part 2

[PatG]

Hi All

Follow up post from yesterday. Herewith a selection of galaxies from Saturdays session, these Galaxies however are a little closer to home!

All images obtained using a 200mm SCT with Lodestar X2 Mono operated with Lodestar Live V0.11 plus a UHC filter. 

Some only single frame as having issues with stacking, (possibly an alignment/tracking issue - thank you Martin).

M51 Whirlpool

M64 Black Eye

M81 Bodes

M82 Cigar

NGC2683 in Lynx

NGC4565 Needle

Closer to home further still, here are a selection of objects that reside in our galaxy: 

IC434 The Horsehead

NGC2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula

NGC2419 Intergalactic Wanderer - Globular Cluster Lynx

M3 Globular Cluster

M53 Globular Cluster

All in all a very productive & satisfying first outing with the wonderfully sensitive Lodestar mono x 2/LL combo - still lots to learn! - Hope you enjoy, all comments and suggestions welcome.

Regards

Pat

[cuivenion]

Nice images, can't wait to have a go at video astronomy when I get the chance.

[RobertI]

Very nice set of captures, some nice detail showing up. Are you using the scope with a reducer or at standard F10?

[Martin Meredith]

You've got some great shots in there Pat. Call me weird but I like the Intergalactic Wanderer best…. (have yet to spot it myself).

I notice that on some of the initial shots you're getting a bit of a posterised appearance (M64 for instance). I've noticed this too on some of my all too few (weather-limited) explorations of LL11. I think it is due to certain nonlinear stretching/contrast combinations that result in the image being mapped to too few bits somehow. There may be different settings that don't show so much posterisation. All good stuff to explore in the future.

Martin

[arkosg]

Robert,

I'd guess, based on my own imaging with an 8" Celestron SCT and the image scale in the pics above, 

that the scope is not at f/10, but rather closer to f/4 or so (very similar scale to what I get with the f/3.3 

reducer on my 8").  I think one of the shots mentions the MFR5, a (variable) Mallincam reducer.

A nice selection of objects/images!  I was looking at a lot of the same ones over the weekend, so it's neat 

to see them with the X2, and also without stacking.  While I'm blown away at how much  you can see

with a short, single exposure, it also impresses on me just how quickly a few stacks add detail and

clean up the noise in the Lodestar images...

Cheers,

- Greg A

[nytecam]

Excellent results - from central London

[PatG]

Thanks for the feedback Everyone!

I was using the MFR5 focal reducer so I believe in this configuration its about F/4.

Martin - the Galactic Wanderer is one of my favourites too, at circa 300,000 LY, possibly the most remote known globular clusters from the centre of the MW as well as us although apparently its heading this way at 20km/sec. This is by far the best capture of this object to date and demonstrates the sensitivity of the X2. 

Looking forward to next session and getting to grips with the stacking functions!

Regards

Pat