M109 - Atik 383L First Light

[iksose7]

Captured this back in March, just a little test so the total exposure is only 2.5 hours and i only shot luminance. The image made it clear that there may have been a little moisture in the chamber so it was sent to Atik for a little service which stopped me grabbing RGB. I now have the CCD back and hope to now crack on with some deep images as soon as the weather allows!

Exposure Details:

15*600s, f7, -15

 

Total Exposure: 

2.5 hours

 

Scope: Altair Astro 115EDT

Camera: Atik 383L+ Mono

Mount: NEQ6

And a bit about what you are looking at:

M109 is a barred spiral galaxy found approximately 60 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Below the center galaxy there are three other smaller galaxies, thought to be satellites to the spiral which has a disk diameter of 120,000 light years making it slightly larger than our Milky Way. 

Messier 109 is actually the most distant object of the 110 deep space objects listed in the Messier catalog, a list of objects discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier. The catalog was originally published with only 103 objects. M109 along with 5 other galaxies and a globular cluster were added to make up the final 110 objects between 1921 and 1966 when evidence was discovered that suggested Messier and his assistant Pierre Méchain observed them shortly after his original 103 objects were published in 1781.

Callum

[carastro]

Really nice, I like that.

Carole 

[Stargazer33]

Very nice Callum.

[iksose7]

Thanks Carole and Bryan, i only wish i could have captured the RGB! Still happy with this as a test image though, gave me a good idea of how nice its going to be to work with a cooled chip. 

Callum

[ultranova]

Nice Picture and a intresting read,

Hope you get your colour for it soon

Paul

[johnrt]

That looks really good, is that the moisture in the top right of the image?

[toxic]

that is nice

[iksose7]

Nice Picture and a intresting read,

Hope you get your colour for it soon

Paul

Think i will leave the colour till next year now Paul! M109 is no longer where i like my objects to be for ideal imaging. If all goes to plan i will be dedicating a bunch of time to M101 over the next month or two.

Callum

[iksose7]

That looks really good, is that the moisture in the top right of the image?

Cheers John, no that is the massive halo from the star Phad! This is cropped slightly and the star wasnt even in frame, only became apparent after stacking. I have been suffering from halos the past couple months for some reason, i'm hoping to try and eliminate the issue.

Callum

[ollypenrice]

Super. The galaxy is a crisp as you like.

Olly

[iksose7]

Thanks Olly, deconvolution and a small unsharp mask application helped a bunch with the galaxy.

Callum

[Coco]

Superb, really very nice indeed.

[Uranium235]

Looking good there!

Just make sure you keep an eye on the 383 desiccant, I normaly get about four months out of mine before I have to bake it (180c for about 2 hours). Once re-inserted, it takes about 2-3 days for it to dry the chamber enough for rapid cooling without ice.

[iksose7]

Hi Rob, thanks. I actually had to send the CCD off for a month to have the sensor cleaned after some thermal paste manged to get onto the edge of the sensor when it iced up. Its fine now though

Callum