This was taken over three days, two with good to excellent seeing (FWHM 1.5" - 1.9") one with more mortal seeing (FWHM 2.0" - 2.7")...So I collected 9.5 hrs of luminance, mostly on the two good nights and 3 hrs of colour on the poor night, all the while observing with the 18" Dob under magnificent skies, had a ball!
..actually and it was difficult, but we were able to spot the Mag 16.6 spiral galaxy, lower right of M104 in the image, in the 18" Dob...very cool.
Have to say, I'm quite happy with the result and such good conditions makes processing quite a bit easier
With the superb conditions on hand, I was keen to go after/reveal, four things
1) the faint dusty extensions at either end of the disc
2) the super faint looping star stream, that's waaaay out in the huuuuge halo, miles from the core of the galaxy
3) to clearly reveal the spiral nature of the two tiny interacting galaxies just below the disc
4) reveal the extent of the massive halo...it almost fills the whole 1/2 deg FOV!
...aaaaand I got'em all! So cheers to that
The Sombrero Galaxy crop of the full frame
Three cool captures distant interacting spiral galaxies, faint dusty extensions and an outer loop
The full frame full res version see the massive halo! (If on your phone turn your screen brightness up
).have a surf around with the screen sliders
Enhanced Stellar Stream and Galaxy Halo NB: I needed just a little more space at the top left and a little more exposure, to make the entire orbiting stream (it encircles the entire galaxy!) more obvious, doh!
An enhanced two hour exposure, using the WHT 4.2m telescope at La Palma is attached
See a paper on the stream
HERE
Results comparison with Wallaroo definitely worth the move
...and a bigger scope would be nice
Great times
Mike