A Nice Pair - M65 & M66

bluescope · #1 03-03-2009, 02:17 PM

We had a realtively cool night last night and by 10.30pm the winds had eased so I ventured into my observatory to do some imaging.

Ofcourse as soon as I setup the wind started to pick up again but I got a few shots in anyway before the buffeting got too severe. I took 5 extra 360 sec images of ngc5128 that I will be adding to previous data on that galaxy but I also got an hour on M65 and M66. Here is the image of that galactic pair. Next time out I'll see if I can fit ngc3628 in frame also ... but I think it will be a tight squeeze ... might just image it by itself and stitch the two images.

WO FLT110 F7 Triplet Apo
SBIG ST2000XCM with Baader MPCC and UV/IR filters
Self guided in CCDOPS
10x360 sec at -14C

Just added individual crops of the two galaxies.

rogerg (Roger) · #2 03-03-2009, 02:31 PM

Excellent image

One of your best I think... but I am biased towards pictures of multiple galaxies

I love the fine detail you have in the galaxies and the low noise. It's all great. I would darken the background some more (quite a light gray on my screen) but that might be just me.

It was a great night last night. I had a mate come up to my place to pick up an Equatorial Tracking Platform I'd been fixing for him. He'd come up on Saturday & Sunday for viewing but both were clouded/rained/thundered out. Then, of course, Monday night when we have work the next day, it's perfect! We took some quick snaps of Lulin but had to give it up at 10:45ish due to work the next day

Glad you managed to make the most of the nice change in the weather

bluescope · #3 03-03-2009, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogerg

Excellent image

One of your best I think... but I am biased towards pictures of multiple galaxies

I love the fine detail you have in the galaxies and the low noise. It's all great. I would darken the background some more (quite a light gray on my screen) but that might be just me.

It was a great night last night. I had a mate come up to my place to pick up an Equatorial Tracking Platform I'd been fixing for him. He'd come up on Saturday & Sunday for viewing but both were clouded/rained/thundered out. Then, of course, Monday night when we have work the next day, it's perfect! We took some quick snaps of Lulin but had to give it up at 10:45ish due to work the next day

Glad you managed to make the most of the nice change in the weather

Thanks Roger ... I'm pretty happy with the image ... my first multiple galaxy shot ... it doesn't look too bad on my monitor ... there are always variations with monitors as we all know.

multiweb (Marc) · #4 03-03-2009, 05:51 PM

Very cool. Nice details and great colors.

bluescope · #5 03-03-2009, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

Very cool. Nice details and great colors.

Thanks again Marc

bluescope · #6 04-03-2009, 05:31 PM

I just added individual 350x350 pixel crops of the two galaxies to the post.

Kevnool (Kev) · #7 04-03-2009, 06:33 PM

Very Classy images.
There looking good to me.
Cheers Kev.

Ric · #8 04-03-2009, 07:13 PM

Fantastic capture Steve, lots of lovely detail in those images.

batema (Mark) · #9 04-03-2009, 07:46 PM

Great shot Steve. How much do you love your williams optics scope??? I have the same one and think its great. Will try these galaxies this weekend but will be using my 400d. Hope it cools a little on the sunshine coast. Is the first image cropped at all or should that be what I will get with my 440d?

Greatgalaxies

Mark

bluescope · #10 04-03-2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ric

Fantastic capture Steve, lots of lovely detail in those images.

Thanks Ric ... I just wish the wind would stop blowing here so I can do some more imaging before the moon gets too bright.

Quote:

Originally Posted by batema

Great shot Steve. How much do you love your williams optics scope??? I have the same one and think its great. Will try these galaxies this weekend but will be using my 400d. Hope it cools a little on the sunshine coast. Is the first image cropped at all or should that be what I will get with my 440d?

Greatgalaxies

Mark

The FLT110 is a great scope Mark ... my other scopes don't get used anymore. The image isn't cropped at all in the first image ... that's the fov of the SBIG ST2000XCM and FLT110 combo. You will get a wider fov with the 400D so you should fit the whole of the Leo Triplet in frame with no problems ... the galaxies will probably appear smaller though. Bit harder focusing with a DSLR too. Good luck on the weekend. I look forward to seeing your results.

bluescope · #11 04-03-2009, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevnool

Very Classy images.
There looking good to me.
Cheers Kev.

Sorry Kev, didn't mean to leave you out of my reply. Glad you like the image and crops.

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #12 04-03-2009, 09:14 PM

Great work!
Thanks for posting.

bluescope · #13 04-03-2009, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Great work!
Thanks for posting.

Thanks Jeanette, actually I just loaded the image into PS and rotated it 180 degrees and thought maybe it looks better ... who knows which way is upside down.

renormalised (Carl) · #14 05-03-2009, 08:21 AM

Great piccies there Steve....detail in both galaxies is excellent

bluescope · #15 05-03-2009, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by renormalised

Great piccies there Steve....detail in both galaxies is excellent

Cheers Carl !