April Comparison - Thoughts

[PKay]

So it must be due for someone else to make a call.
Raymo? Chris? Sir Alex?
It only takes one vote :)

My thoughts:

The Virgo Galaxies.
Ideal place in the sky, wide field or narrow field targets.
There is M84, M86, M87, M89 just to name a few.
Centring on NGC4425 for a wide field could work.

Or go for a 'Stellar Companion'.
Theta Orionis, Gamma Leonis, Gamma Virginis, Gamma Crucis are a few examples.
Correct exposure should reveal the star colours.

[ChrisV]

I'd be fine with any of those. Or we could go for another galaxy - M83 is coming into season. Nice big colourful galaxy that might be one of the easier ones (he said confidently ...). And see if you can pull out the nearby PGC166170

[Icearcher]

Seeing as the galactic centre is coming in to view we could do something like the Lagoon Nebular / Trifid Nebular region.

Or maybe we could do the Antares region, there looks to be lots of nebulars and colours in the area.

At present, Im a fan of wide field stuff as im limited to a 250mm lens until the middle of may.

[PKay]

The Lagoon will still be a bit too low.

Scorpius is a good choice.
Example target could be the Cats Paw NGC6334. A good wide ish target at 20'X 20'. Haven't done that one yet.

M83: Probably to hard for many at only 10' X 10'.

Maybe just choose the constellation of Scorpius for the comparison.

( I will still do M83 - love galaxies!)

Anyway, I will cast the vote in a few days if no one else does :)

[raymo]

What about the LMC, SMC, and/or parts thereof?
raymo

[xelasnave]

Peter its great to see you continuing to promote the idea.
I think it is working well to encourage folk and what better thing can we do than encourage folk.
I suggest a target that can be captured via wide field or long fl if thats possible so folk starting with a dslr and a 100 mm lens can be involved.
I will still be working on my usual basis if I can find it I will capture it...but given my small window of sky there is not much else I can do.
And perhaps a chart locating the selected object because folk starting out will find that helpful.
Alex

[raymo]

The LMC and SMC [plus 47 Tuc] are easy to find, and respond well to all focal lengths.
raymo

[Icearcher]

Maybe Lagoon/Trifid next month?

I like the idea of the LMC/SMC, the LMC is even quite a decent sized target for my Sony rx100 at 70mm.

Also, for later in the year, octoberish, can we lock in Andromeda and Pinwheel galaxys? They will be lowish in the north but should still be easy to image.