Galaxies

1 At the Texas Star Party you get to image some neat Southern objects! Here is my interpretation of NGC 5128 aka Centaurus A. This beautiful starburst galaxy is about 13 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. Centaurus A has a galactic nucleus that is extremely active, it contains a supermassive black hole and the ejecta jets move at relativistic speeds causing X-Ray and radio emissions. NGC 5128 is a relatively bright object and it can be seen easily with a small aperture telescope and even binoculars. This image is composed of 10 2-minute images through Red, Green, Blue and Luminance filters for a total of about an hour and a half exposure time. Date:5/5/16 Location: Texas Star Party, Fort Davis, TX Mount: Paramount MX Camera: SBIG ST10 XME Optics: TeleVue NP 127 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 10x120 secs Processing: PixInsight	2 Here is my interpretation of M81. The beginning of Spring brings the asterism of the Big Dipper on Ursa Major high in the sky and very close to this recognizable shape in the sky is the impressive face-on spiral galaxy M81. M81 is about 12 million light years away but it is quite bright at magnitude 6.9 so it is visible in moderate size telescopes. This image is composed of 1 hour and a half each of Luminance, Red, Green and Blue (LRGB) light for a total of 6 hours of exposure. Date: 3/15/16 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee CG16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 9x600 secs Processing: PixInsight	3 The beginning of Fall brings us the constellation of Triangulum and within it resides the M33 The Triangulum Galaxy. Here is my latest interpretation of this galaxy captured mid-September 2015. M33 is about 3 million light-years distant and in very dark pristine skies it may be barely discernible with the naked eye. Date:9/15/15 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee CG16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 7x600 secs Processing: PixInsight	4 Here is my interpretation of M51 or the Whirlpool galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venatici near the asterism of the Big Dipper, ~23 million light-years distant. I was very pleased with how the tidal disruptions show up on the interacting galaxy NGC 5195. Note the tiny edge-on galaxy IC4177 on the lower right. Not a lot of signal, 30 minutes each of Luminance, Red, Green and Blue (LRGB) captured during the Spring of 2015. Date:5/25/15 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee CG16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 10x300 secs Processing: PixInsight
5 Here is my interpretation of NGC 891. In the beginning of Fall the constellation of Andromeda rises and it brings within it NGC891 a beautiful edge-on spiral galaxy. NGC 891 is about 30 million light years away but it is quite bright so it is visible in moderate size telescopes. This image is composed of 1 hour each of Luminance, Red, Green and Blue (LRGB) light for a total of 4 hours of exposure. Image Details: Date:9/29/14 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee CG16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 12x300 secs Processing: PixInsight	6 About 11 and a half million years ago a star exploded in the 82nd object Charles Messier catalogued also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Eight days ago the light of that explosion finally arrived to Earth and now we can see it with modest telescopes. Supernova SN2014j shines at an estimated magnitude of 10.5 Last night it finally cleared up at the Hut so even though the temperature was close to 0*F I decided to try to image this new friend. Here is my rendition of SN2014j in M82 without annotation. Can you find the supernova? It is composed of 50 minutes each of Luminance, Red, Green, Blue and Ha. The RGB subs were of 5 minutes and the Ha subs were of 10 minutes each. Image Details: Date:1/29/14 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee U16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 10x300 secs, Ha 5x600 secs Processing: PixInsight	7 About 11 and a half million years ago a star exploded in the 82nd object Charles Messier catalogued also known as the Cigar Galaxy. Eight days ago the light of that explosion finally arrived to Earth and now we can see it with modest telescopes. Supernova SN2014j shines at an estimated magnitude of 10.5 Last night it finally cleared up at the Hut so even though the temperature was close to 0*F I decided to try to image this new friend. Here is my rendition of SN2014j in M82 with the supernova annotated. It is composed of 50 minutes each of Luminance, Red, Green, Blue and Ha. The RGB subs were of 5 minutes and the Ha subs were of 10 minutes each. Image Details: Date:1/29/14 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee U16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: L=R=G=B = 10x300 secs, Ha 5x600 secs Processing: PixInsight	8 M74 in the constellation of Pisces is a wonderful face-on galaxy that can be seen in Winter in the northern hemisphere. It is 32 million light-years away and it's low surface brightness makes it quite challenging to observe. This image is from a short exposure of 40 minutes for each; Luminance, Red, Green and Blue. Image Details: Date:12/27/13 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee U16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: Lum=8x300 secs, R=8x300 secs, G=8x300 secs, B=8x300 secs Processing: PixInsight
9 NGC 6946 the Fireworks Galaxy is a beautiful face on galaxy in the constellation of Cepheus. This image is from a relatively short exposure, 1 hour for each; Luminance, Red, Green and Blue. Even with that short time the bright areas of star formation and ionized Hydrogen that give it its name are easily discernible. Image Details: Date:10/8/13 Location: Hutville, OH Mount: Paramount ME Camera: Apogee U16M Optics: Planewave CDK-17 Exposure: Lum=6x600 secs, R=6x600 secs, G=6x600 secs, B=6x600 secs Processing: PixInsight	10	11	12
13	14 Whirlpool	15	16 Exploding Cigar
17	18 M101	19	20
21	22 Sombrero	23	24
25	26	27	28
29	30 Leo Trio	31	32
33	34	35	36
37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44
45	46	47	48
49	50	51	52
53	54	55	56
57	58	59	60 Deer Lick Group
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