Anyway, I targeted some galaxies tonight, primarily. I started off with the familiar sight of M81 and M82. Even in the local, light-polluted skies they appeared bright and stood out clearly from the dark background of space. I could see a little bit of detail in the Cigar galaxy, but not too much. I then went onto the M51 "Whirlpool" galaxy, and could only really discern its two central bulges, like two grey eyes looking back at me. I also found the Leo Triplet which are a group of galaxies I have not observed often but need to pay moe attention to. I managed to get all three in the field of view of my Panoptic 22mm, and it was a pleasant sight.
I also checked out the Owl Nebula, and spent some time observing Saturn. I could see a fair amount of surface coloring, and the rings looked elegant as they appeared to pierce the plant through its center. There was a very small level of tilt to the rings that I could observe, as well as maybe three moons.
I was only out for about 1.5 hrs before I felt too tired and needed to come home. Still, it was nice to be under the stars again - it had been a while.
I also took my DSLR and tripod and experimented around a little bit. I took the image below of the Auriga constellation, which consists of around 18*25 second exposures at F5.6, ISO800. I pointed out some of the neater features of the constellation as well.
Click on image for full size
Nice photo, Phil! I've been planning on taking some shots like this one, too. I know what you mean about blowing off steam. A nice, quiet night under the stars is good stress relief.
ReplyDeleteI found M37 and M35 in the photo, too. M37 is up and to the left of M36. M35 is the fuzzy patch on the left edge, about 1/6th of the way down from the top.
Comet Cardinal (C/2008 T2) is just below M37, if this was taken on Tuesday night. I can't make it out. Maybe it's visible in the full-size image...
Hi Rory,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post! Yep, I should have pointed out M37 as well - it is visible indeed. I'll add that on the weekend just for grins.
Your comment about Comet Cardinal has me intrigued. I've looked at the full scale image and cross-checked it against SkyAtlas 2000.0 and can't quite make out anything out of place. I'll keep checking though...
Okay. I slightly modified the image but couldn't see a blob that would represent a comet. I did however add a label for M35 - thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteBelow is a link to a picture taken on April 21 by Mike Prokosch. Two comets are visible below M37. But this was taken through a scope at probably 20X+ magnification. I guess they wouldn't show up in a regular photo.
ReplyDeletehttp://schoolyardastronomy.wikispaces.com/Comet+Lulin
It's a great area of the sky. You remind me great things can be done with just a camera.
ReplyDelete