Vern’s Weblog

A long night last night (9 pm to 4 am), and not a whole lot to show for it! Here is an image of Messier 104 in the constellation Virgo. One of those nights that I kept making silly mistakes. A planned hour long session imaging m104 stretched into almost three. Below image is stack of 8 out of the 14 I took. Images are all 3 minute bulb exposures at ASA 800. Images were aligned, stacked, and enhanced with ImagePlus software. I haven’t got the colors are right, it appears bluish-green and should be whitish. Equipment used was the Celestron Nexstar11 mounted on an APT wedge, Meade F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D camera. Weather was partly cloudy, transparency was generally good, turbulence was 6/10, and temperature was 50°F.

Contained in about 6 arc-minute area are seven galaxies to challenge those with large aperature scopes and dark skies (or Stellacams from light polluted backyards). I didn’t have the gamma set correctly set on the Stellacam when I took these. I’m learning that the gamma setting needs to be on medium for faint objects — if it is off there is not much to stack. There should be more detail, I’m going to visit this object again soon. Image taken last evening, April 20 just after midnignt with Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam2 video camera, gain 9/14, gamma off (unfortuantely), and integrate at 256.

Below is an image of NGC 4038 and 4039 in the constellation Corvus. This interesting pair of galaxies which are believed to be a colliding. NGC 4038 to the north or top in the image contains several dark patches. No sign of the the “antennae” that Hubble images show — I guess I need a bit more aperature! Hubblesite.org has discussion and images of star forming regions resulting from the collision.

Below image taken between 11:20 MDT and 11:40 MDT last evening, April 19, 2006 with a Celestron Nexstar11 telescope mounted on APT wedge, a Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and an Astrovid Stellacam2. Temperature was 43°F, no wind, transparency was very good, and turbulence was 5/10.

The sombrero galaxy, Messier 104, in the constellation Virgo has a brilliant white central core that is encircled by dust lane. The sombrero galaxy is estimated to be 28 million light years away and 50,000 light years across. Below image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellcam2. Stellcam2 set at gain 9/14, gamma off, and integration 256. Image was dark subtracted, flat fielded, and aligned and stacked from 149, 8.5 second exposures.

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While searching for comet 43P last night (didn’t find it), I took a break from the search for a while and imaged NGC 3395 and 3396.

NGC 3395 and 3396 are a fairly bright pair of galaxies (visual magnitude 12.1) in constellation Leo Minor. Both galaxies are at an estimated distance of 85 million light years and are thought to be in the process of merging. UV observations with the Hubble telescope have found knots of material believed to be star forming regions in both galaxies.

NGC 3396 is to the upper left and 3395 is at a right angle and down in below image (north is approximately up and east to the left).