Sleeping Beauty Galaxy (Black eye - M64)

[cometcatcher]

This seems to be a small improvement over my 2015 image with an 8" scope. I've rotated the image upright, rather than having a lean on it, which kind of makes me want to tilt my head. :P

This is 719 x 30 seconds, GSO 10" F4 Newtonian, full spectrum Canon 1100D, UV / IR block filter.

From Wiki "The Black Eye Galaxy (also called Evil Eye Galaxy; designated Messier 64, M64, or NGC 4826) is a galaxy which was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780. It has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. The galaxy is also called the Sleeping Beauty galaxy. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. It is a spiral galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation, 24 million light years distant."

[RickS]

Nice one, Kevin. The dust lanes look crisp and you're showing lots of extended halo.

[Placidus]

That's really good, especially the dusty bit.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Rick and M&T.

M&T, have you imaged this with your 20"? Your image scale would mage a nice image of it.

[Atmos]

Very nice Kevin!
When reading the title it wasn't the galaxy I had in my head :lol:

Out of curiosity, how much space does 719 images take up with your camera?

[marc4darkskies]

Nice job Kevin! The central detail looks great!

[cometcatcher]

Hi Colin. Let me see, 16.9MB for each CR2 RAW file x 719 = 12007.3MB. 12 gigs? But this was done over about 5 sessions I think it was so the camera only ever held a couple of gigs at any one time. I then stacked each session in DSS, then the 5 sessions, so DSS wasn't overloaded either.



Thanks Marcus!

[astroron]

Lots of detail including the halo,but it still looks a little flat to me. ;)
I do prefer the slightly angled version for this galaxy. :)
All is in the eye of the beholder of course.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[billdan]

Good catch Kevin, the galaxy has a lot of blue in it so there must be a lot of young stars still being created.
With my 10yr old XP machine I would have to do as you do, stack in batches of 100 subs and then stack the batches.

Cheers
Bill

[cometcatcher]

Just rotate the monitor a bit there Ron. ;)



Thanks Bill. I'm using an ageing i5 laptop. I have an i7 desktop that I don't use lol.

[Phil Hart]

That is a nice little image there Kevin.. central detail does look good. Now just double the exposure time and you'll have a cracker.

What mount are you carrying the 10" GSO on? Can't see that listed in your extensive gear list ;) and can't imagine it's the HEQ5 from your Astrobin pics?

Phil

[cometcatcher]

Hi Phil. It's the same HEQ5 from the older pics...

[strongmanmike]

Wow, great shot Kevin, the central detail is excellent, really is a strange galaxy, the smoothness in the "arms" almost doesn't look real, a rather unique galaxy I'd say :thumbsup:

Mike

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Mike. Yes, I'm just starting to resolve the central core a bit. A more accurate tracking mount might help sharpen that up a bit more too. Even some guiding. But that's for the future.