April 26, 2020: Markarian's Chain with M87

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I decided to go for the APM 80mm F/6 triplet with 0.8x focal reducer, rather than the Meade SN6. This makes tracking a lot easier, and grabs a wider field. I therefore went for the M86 end of Markarian's Chain, with M87 fitting into the lower left of the image. Conditions weren't great, with some high haze, and clouds limiting the run to 2 h of data. This is the result of 120 60 s subs, with 30 darks, 50 flats, 50 dark flats, and 50 bias frames.

Still noisy, so I should add more data if I get a chance. I think the distance of reducer to chip isn't quite right either, so will have to work on that.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just ran it through Astrometry.net, and it picked up just a couple of galaxies

[x6gas]

Very nice Michael.

[Paul M]

Very nice indeed. The mind boggles at the scale of this thing!