Astronomy heaven plus a black eye

[RobertI]

It was warm and clear on Saturday night, so I set up the RC6+Lodestar to do some EAA of galaxies, and the C8 on the Skytee so I could observe Jupter in between images. It was lovely being able to sit outside with the laptop and enjoy some visual and EAA at the same time.

My main target was M64, Blackeye galaxy, but first thought I'd test out the system on M13 and M5. The two captures below show the results, with the same exposures and integration time. However M5 has a much brighter core and needed different adjustments to prevent burning out the core, but I should have done a version with the adjustments unchanged so a direct comparison could be made. I think I may revisit these two and do some more work to compare the differences.

Next was the main event of the evening, M64 the Blackeye galaxy. This is a really wonderful object and really interesting to try different exposures and stretching to bring out the detail in the dark band. Below is my favourite capture followed by a comparison of different exposures and stretches.

Large, medium and small stretch versions, each one showing a different amounts of detail in different areas:

Next was NGC 4559. I wanted to use the Ha filter to bring out the star forming regions, but got into trouble with stacking failing, so kept to mono, with the following result, plenty of star forming regions visible, but slightly eggy and bloated stars due to 60 second exposures:

Next was the pretty NGC4725 in Coma Berenices with five times more distant galaxy NGC4712 in the same FOV. There is something really special about having several galaxies in the same FOV, seems to add depth and gives the image a more 3D feeling. NGC4725 has an interacting neighbour NGC4747 nearby but I did not catch that. I was starting to get hot pixel issues at this point (despite using bad pixel removal in Star Light Live) so included some darks ti improve the result:

Finally M51 was overhead, so couldn't resist a quick look.  

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

[Knighty2112]

Great images. Just shows with a good night you can still bag some great images even with the nights getting much shorter! Well done!  

[Martin Meredith]

Looks like a good session! I really like your image of NGC 4559. There's something about its inclination that makes it appear to just hang there in the star field. Its also great to see the effect of different stretches. I'm finding that log does a good job on globulars. At some point I'll try to put together a variety of stretches (with the black point held constant) for M3 that I captured recently.

BTW Reading the title I feared you'd misjudged the distance to the eyepiece or something .... Its great when the temperature and clear nights come together isn't it? Yesterday was looking perfect over here and I was all set up on the grass when a single large cloud hovered over the region I was hoping to observe (deep down in Hydra -- possibly will have to wait until next year now to mop up the last few Hicksons). All I had to show for the evening was a mosquito bite.

Martin

[RobertI]

12 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Great images. Just shows with a good night you can still bag some great images even with the nights getting much shorter! Well done!  

Thanks Gus, yes I felt that the dark nights are running out, so a clear night was too good an opportunity to waste. I felt it the next morning though!

8 hours ago, Martin Meredith said:

Looks like a good session! I really like your image of NGC 4559. There's something about its inclination that makes it appear to just hang there in the star field. Its also great to see the effect of different stretches. I'm finding that log does a good job on globulars. At some point I'll try to put together a variety of stretches (with the black point held constant) for M3 that I captured recently.

BTW Reading the title I feared you'd misjudged the distance to the eyepiece or something .... Its great when the temperature and clear nights come together isn't it? Yesterday was looking perfect over here and I was all set up on the grass when a single large cloud hovered over the region I was hoping to observe (deep down in Hydra -- possibly will have to wait until next year now to mop up the last few Hicksons). All I had to show for the evening was a mosquito bite.

Martin

Thanks Martin. Yes I completely forgot to try the non-linear stretches on the globs, it's been too long and I forgot how to use the tool! Hopefully I'll get another chance. Hope you get your oppotunity with Hydra soon.

 

[HiloDon]

Rob,

Great captures and excellent presentation!  I am always impressed with what the Lodestar mono can produce.  Still a winner in my book.

Don

[RobertI]

Thanks Don. Glad to hear you're ok after the volcano problems by the way.

[elpajare]

Nice trip through the night sky and good images.

I would highlight NGC 4725

And a personal opnion on the globular clusters and the NRTV, if we lower the exposure to much so as not to burn the nucleus we lose many weak stars and the clusters remain as crowded.

[RobertI]

15 minutes ago, elpajare said:

Nice trip through the night sky and good images.

I would highlight NGC 4725

And a personal opnion on the globular clusters and the NRTV, if we lower the exposure to much so as not to burn the nucleus we lose many weak stars and the clusters remain as crowded.

Thanks Elpajare, agree about the globs, next time I will try a non-linear stretch, but I guess ultimately the best way is a series of different length exposures to bring out the different areas, so i'll try some longer exposures too to compare.