NGC4709 & friends

[Ric]

Hi all, heres one I took of NGC4709 last night. The image is not that crash hot as it was mainly a test to see how deep I can get in a heavily light polluted area, my neighbours insist on having their house lit up like a Christmas tree.
The test was to see how many galaxies I could pick up in this area and I was pleasantly surprised.
This image is the result of 100 images @ 30 seconds each with Envisage and processed in MaximDL. I added a screen print from Star Atlas Pro. The LX200R was in Alt/Az mode and a f/3.3 focal reducer was used as well.

The main bright galaxies go down to mag 16.5 in the case of PGC0043353 but there are some fainter ones that I was unable to indentify which may well be down to mag 17.5.
I can't wait to finally get set up permanently at the farm with dark skies.

Cheers :)

[richardo]

Hi Ric,
good to see you out and about wandering through the night skies going deep!

Damn those neigbours, don't they know that their extravagance is adding to the up and coming generations demise, not to mention your aggravation.... :mad2:

Will be good for you to leave the city LP in your dust and settle in for some country sky darkness, you'll just be lovin' life..... no recalcitrant neighbours, no street lights, no gradients..... no people, just you and the light of the Milky Way plundering the treasures.....
Aaaah, the country life for me... ;)

All the best
Rich

[Ric]

Hi Rich, it's a great area, there is not a single streetlight to mention and the nearest neighbours lights are nearly a kilometre away and that's blocked by a Eucalypt forest. Also a lot of the skyglow of Canberra (approx 40k distant) is blocked by range of hills we will be behind.
Hopefully by the end of the year.

Cheers

[EzyStyles]

hi ric mag 17.5 woww. those are deep galaxies. exactly the same as me my neighbours sensor light turns on in the middle of the night automatically from wind.. it really suck.

[Ric]

I agree Eric, sensor lights can be even worse and always at the most inappropriate time as well.
I think the trick is to sneak over when they are out or away and pinch all the bulbs ;)

Cheers