All dressed up and nowhere to go

[wimvb]

That pretty much sums up the situation last night. A very unexpected clear night coincided with a dinner party with colleagues. When I got home I opened the observatory, but couldn't find an interesting enough target. So I settled for a group of "small" galaxies in Lynx, close to Camelopardalis. Nest 100044 consists of about 18 galaxies and is situated about 380 million light years away. There are many other galaxies in this field of view. PixInsight found about 90 identified galaxies, but there are also a decent number of unidentified ones. One of the most distant galaxies in this field is about 2 billion light years distant.

The image may not loook impressive and colourful, but shows things in a grand scale.

This is 6 hours of RGB data, collected with my MN190 and ASI294MM

Processed and annotated in PixInsight, with help of the TypeCat script. There is a glare of the nearby star HD 65626 in the image, but I didn't bother to remove it.

Click on the image to open a larger version.

 

[maw lod qan]

6 hours after a dinner party?

Sounds like a late evening!

But the image is amazing!

[wimvb]

2 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

6 hours after a dinner party?

Sounds like a late evening!

But the image is amazing!

The party was early, and the nights are long this time of the year. And the observatory is automated. The security camera in my observatory captured the scope parking early in the morning, while I was sound asleep.

[Ouroboros]

Would the roof close automatically if the rain came?  Very nice image @wimvb!  I sometimes think that in our attempts at large targets we forget that star and galaxy fields make worthwhile images too. Are the spectral lines at the top left the glare you refer to or something else? 

[wimvb]

13 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Would the roof close automatically if the rain came?  Very nice image @wimvb!  I sometimes think that in our attempts at large targets we forget that star and galaxy fields make worthwhile images too. Are the spectral lines at the top left the glare you refer to or something else? 

The roof isn't automated.  The observatory is built on a South facing slope and has a slanted roof. The winch that closes the roof is visible to the right in the video clip. I've considered replacing it with a gate motor, but those may not be strong enough. Besides, the closing roof would knock the dew shield off the scope, unless I park it horizontally.

The spectral lines are the glare from HD65626, yes.

[WolfieGlos]

Great image Wim! Zooming in and looking around you can see loads of those smaller galaxies, and I dare say you could make something similar to a Hubble deep field if you poured the hours in?

I had the same problem last night with a social event, fortunately it clouded over when we left at 7 and cleared up not long after after we got back 🤣. Shame it didn't stay clear like it was predicted to.