Messier 88

[cometcatcher]

From Wiki "Messier 88 (also known as M88 or NGC 4501) is a spiral galaxy about 50 to 60 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781.

The supermassive black hole at the core of this galaxy has 107.9 solar masses, or about 80 million times the mass of the Sun."

Worth putting up with all the annoying sat trails to get it I think.
GSO 10" F4 Newtonian, Canon 1100D full spectrum, Baader MPCC MKIII, Baader UV/IR cut filter, 553 x 45 seconds or about 6.9 hours unguided, Heq5 Pro.

Larger field at Astrobin with satellite galaxies.
----> https://astrob.in/346978/B/

[Geoff45]

Lots of detail in that little galaxy Kevin. 553 subs? A feat in itself.

[LewisM]

A lovely galaxy far, far away

[multiweb]

Very nice details in the arms indeed. Top shot. :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Geoff! You can never have too many subs! lol.



Thanks Lewis! Probably has a death star at the core.



Thanks Marc! Yes there's a few dust lanes showing up. First time I've imaged this.

[RickS]

Very nice, Kevin! Stars look just a little elongated? [Update: just noticed it was unguided. Doh!]

[gregbradley]

A pretty image.
Greg

[billdan]

Lovely looking galaxy Kevin, a bit of star trailing from being unguided, but its the galaxy that's on show.
:thumbsup:

[archioptic]

So much detail in those spiral arms, nice one! I especially like the wider field you linked to with all those other galaxies.

[Mickoid]

Nice one Kevin, good to see older DSLRs are still holding up against the more popular CCD cameras that are available today. I'll probably end up purchasing one eventually if my interest in the hobby lasts long enough to justify one. In the meantime, I'm happy with the quality my Canon 550d produces today.

553 subs, my computer would have well and truly crashed before it could stack anywhere near that many images! Bonus points for that too. :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Rick,. Yes there is some elongation of the brighter stars. It's probably caused from a couple of reasons, but the main one I figured out to be mirror shock. I can't lock the mirror up on this camera, and when it flips up it causes a diagonal streak on bright objects. I had a good example on my hard drive but I lost it. There's a few things I can do to minimize it which I am working on.



Thanks Greg! I'm just in it for the pretty pictures. ;)



Thanks Bill!



Some of the other galaxies are worth investigation on their own with a bigger scope I reckon.



Thanks Michael! I would also like a dedicated astro camera, but money has become tight so I'm kind of stuck with what I've got at the moment. But I do need one sooner or later as this many subs will eventually kill the DSLR. The PC however seems quite happy stacking this many without a problem as I have done many times in the past. Even if I do get a CMOS astro cam I will probably continue stacking lots of short subs. Too many clouds where I live for long subs.

[gaseous]

Apologies for what is no doubt a gumby question, but how does 107.9 solar masses equate to 80 million times the mass of the sun? My brain tells me that 107.9 solar masses would be 107.9 times the mass of the sun. Am I missing something remarkably obvious?

[archioptic]

You're right, I think Kevin meant 10^7.9 which is just under 80 million solar masses

[gaseous]

Cheers, that makes sense.

[Bart]

Breaking the mould, unguided and a DSLR!

Nice work!:)

[cometcatcher]

Yeah something went wrong in the copy and paste from wiki.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Bart! I don't think DSLR's are much worse than an OSC astro cam, except in the middle of summer when noise becomes a problem.

[topheart]

Excellent!
Cheers,
Tim

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Tim, glad you like it.

[codemonkey]

Great field, Kevin, lots to see and some very nice detail on the star of the show!

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Lee! I want to see this imaged with your 178. Please. It would be awesome. :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

I'd love to, but unfortunately there's a massive gum tree behind my observatory (on a neighbouring property) which means that I only have full visibility south of Dec 0 and M88 is waaay off that so unless that gum tree has an accident. Heaps of lovely galaxies to the north that I'd love to image but cannot :(

[Placidus]

Wow, Kevin, that's beautifully done.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks M&T. This would be awesome with your scope too.

[telecasterguru]

Very well done.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Frank!