Monday, April 09, 2018

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy

A nice clear night last night until around 12:30 when clouds rolled in. Managed to get this image of the lovely M51 Whirlpool galaxy. It lies around 23 million light years away and it is interacting with a smaller galaxy (yellow~ish bulge to the left). Three supernova (star explosions) have been detected in this galaxy since 1994. There's more detail here but I think I'm pushing things with an 80mm scope.

Image Details:

* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor

* Imaging Camera: Nikon D7000

* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor

* Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot AutoGuider

* Mount: Celestron CGEM

* Exposures: 15 * 8 minute lights, 9 * 8 minute darks, 30 bias frames

* ISO 1250

* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

* Post-Processing Dynamic Photo HDR, LightRoom and Photoshop.


No comments:

Post a Comment

G'day there!

Please feel free to leave a comment on this post. Due to increasing spam bot attempts, there is some added word verification security that you'll need to fill out to leave your comment.

Check back - I WILL respond.

Cheers,
Phil