Virgo galaxies (Makarian's Chain)

[RobF]

I had the opportunity to image this area for almost a couple of hours from Leyburn dark skies earlier this week. It turned into a race against the trees, but I got twice as much data as initially expect as the field neatly slid down between large gum trees rather than behind. :)

Not enough to get colour and decent SNR, but way beyond what I can hope for normally from the 'burbs. Processed a bit harshly to hold down the noisy background. Still, I bagged quite a few of the blighters.


LRGB 20:20:20:20 mins (unbinned)
FSQ106@f3.7 & QHY9

[Lee]

Looks good - I love that region.... I'd need a 16 frame mosaic with my scope/CCD to get that field! :)

[Ross G]

Great capture Rob.

You've captured so many galaxies!

Ross.

[RobF]

Thanks for looking guys.

Lee, I haven't had too many chances to play with the reducer, but funds are unlikely to allow a large format CCD for quite a while, and figured the small QHY9 pixels should be up to the task. It is nice to be able to see a bit wider for a change :)

[batema]

It looks great Rob. How much do you love that scope???? Hope to see it working at astrofest.

Mark

[RobF]

Hi Mark

Work-related travel is going to stop me getting to AF this year alas :(
The Tak is a keeper for sure. Been in the game long enough to start trying to get some higher quality gear together :love:

[sjastro]

Nice capture Rob.

Steven

[RickS]

You got a whole swarm of 'em. Well done, Rob! You seem to have a thing about imaging very close to horizontal :lol:

[RobF]

Thanks Steven :)



Thanks for checking it out Rick. They would have been a lot higher if I hadn't left my imaging plan spreadsheet at home with co-ordinates, PAs, etc, along with clouds earlier in the night. :tasdevil:
C'est la vie.....

Still, you could be right - there's something inherently tempting for me about extreme horizontal imaging :P
A couple of years ago I bagged M101 at 7 degrees high - now THAT's horizontal :thumbsup:

[Larryp]

Nice image, Rob

[RobF]

Thanks Larry!

[multiweb]

Great shot Rob. Really cool. :thumbsup: