April 21, 2020: M58, Siamese Twins, and SN 2020fqv

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Despite efforts polar aligning the mount with drift align, the tracking was all over the place (must really get autoguiding sorted as well). Neverthe less, I tried to gather lots of short (15s) subs on the field containing M58 and NGC 4567/8 (Siamese Twins) as the latter contains a supernova (SN 2020fqv), which should be doable at mag 15.6 in a 6" scope with long enough exposure. As it turned out, I noticed several subs with eggy stars (wind), so stopped the process after capturing 132 subs for a total of 33 minutes exposure. I wasn't expecting much after stacking, but was pleasantly surprised at what came out. The full field really shows promise, so I think I will give it another go tonight, weather permitting (looking good, that would be 8 consecutive nights of clear skies).

M58 is at the left, the Siamese Twins are to the right, with NGC4564 a bit higher up to the left of the twins, and IC 3578 near the right edge of the image.

Zooming in on the twins, I noted a little speck of light in NGC 4568, to the right of its core

Checking with other images, this is indeed my first supernova image. Good news after a frustrating night

 

[astro mick]

Well done on such a capture.

Mick.