The M96 Group and Leo Triplet!

[Imahumanbeing]

Hello everyone!

I tried to get some pictures of the Leo Triplet the other night and got around 2 hours worth of 15 second lights with 30 darks at ISO 1600 but because of bad tracking I ended up with 44 minutes. I stacked them in DSS and wasn't really expecting much so was very happy to see a tiny amount of a curl to the galaxy at the bottom of the picture! I also realised the galaxies appeared to be too far apart and then found out that I had got the wrong galaxies, I got the M96 Group instead!

So I tried again at getting the Leo Triplet last night and wanted to get 3 hours worth but ended up with just over 2 hours of 15 second lights, 30 darks, ISO 1600 and stacked in DSS. When it had stacked the picture looked very bleak at first but as I aligned the curves and turned up the saturation the galaxies appeared! I can't believe how much has come out using just 15 second exposures! I am very happy with this picture, very happy! I have turned the brightness and contrast up a bit and cropped it but thats all for now so I will take my time and have another go at it. I am very pleased!

Celestron 80ED on a Nexstar SLT GT mount with a Canon 1000D

Cheers

Jamie

IMG_SGL0001.jpg

IMG_SGL10001.jpg

[661-pete]

Nice collection of galaxies you've got there, and I can see a fair amount of detail especially in the triplet - worth having a go at the gradients, if you can, to get even better results.

... and then found out that I had got the wrong galaxies, I got the M96 Group instead!

You're not the first one to make that mistake! I find it surprising - the two galaxy groups are not really that close together and look altogether different... Try and get M95 in frame too, if you have another go at this area.

[gary1968]

Thats very nice that is Jamie. For 15 sec exposures I think you have done very well.Thanks for sharing.

Gary

[jgs001]

Well done Jamie, you've done great for 15 second exposures on an AltAz mount. I made that exact same mistake with the triplet ....

[Beyond_Vision]

Well done Jamie thats a good result considering the short sub frame time

Regards

Kevin

[Psychobilly]

Well Done Jamie

Superb for 15s subs... and lots of them that must have taken a while to stack

Peter...

[Ant]

Amazing for 15second exposures!

Well done.

Got some nice details coming out as well.

Ant

[Imahumanbeing]

Thanks very much everyone for the awesome comments!

661-Pete - I wish I had seen M95 at the time which should be to the lower right, then I would have realised I had the wrong galaxies!

Peter - It took so long I had to cancel it because it was so late and then start again the night after! I am still messing about with the picture and will post the result, it will probably be just a bit brighter than the other one.

Cheers!

Jamie