Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Supernova 2011 DH in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

This is my attempt at capturing the recent supernova (star explosion) in the M51 Whirlpool galaxy. It was first observed by French astronomers on June 2, 2011. Must have been a REALLY big explosion - this galaxy lies 25 million light years away!

Sorry for the poor image quality, it was shot in heavy light pollution so I couldn't get very long exposures, only about 7 minutes per exposure (stack of 8).

4 comments:

RoryG said...

This is a really great shot! Far better than mine!

Phil said...

Thanks mate! Need to shoot the new Supernover in the Pinwheel at some stage...

Dorian said...

I have been turning more and more to your blog to see these types of things that you capture...Unfortunately, for my daughter and I, while we wait for "Santa" to bring us a decent telescope (I got some great advice from you on that and am getting ready to purchase, so thank you! by the way, for advising on the 6" Dobsonian)...Where was I? Oh yeah, daughter and I have had some terrible luck with the weather here not cooperating when there are supposed to be sky-events that require nothing more then some good bino's and sooo I turn to your great posts! Though, the past couple of days the moon has been good, though I still love to see what you saw, haha!

Phil said...

Hi Dorian! Wow - you guys are going to have a good Christmas. Here's something else about Astronomy that you need to know. The moment you order any telescopic equipment (or even think about doing so) you ar dooming yourself and others in your area to cloudy skies for days to come. It's a well-know and well-documented curse!!!! I can't wait to hear about your experiences with your new scope to let me know how it goes!

Cheers,
Phil