Bode's Galaxy - Messier 81

This large galaxy is located in the northern sky, in the constellation of Ursa Major. It is quite bright, and can be seen with the naked eye on a dark night. It is the major member of a large group of smaller galaxies all orbiting each-other. This is about 1 1/2 hours worth of images shot with the big 9 1/4" scope and my DSLR.

Signs of Spring...

The rise of the Leo constellation tells us that Spring is on the way. With this in mind, I braved subzero temperatures and got this shot of spiral galaxy M66, part of the "Leo Trio" of large, bright galaxies grouped close together. M66 is a dusty galaxy made of mostly of older stars. It normally has a yellowish tint, but my image does not really show it well.

This image is made of seven stacked 5 minute pics shot through the C9.25 using the StarShoot I CCD. All shot at approximately F5 'ish.

NGC 2336 - The Most Northern Galaxy

This galaxy, NGC 2336, is the closest to Polaris of all known galaxies. Because of this, it is relatively little known or photographed. It's proximity to the celestial pole makes it a tough target. Those who attempt it are rewarded with a spectacular and very faint barred spiral.


Scope: Celestron 6" SCT

Reducer: .63

CCD: SBIG ST7

Subs: 11

Duration: 13 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 38 minutes

Mount: LXD 75

No Filter

More Weirdness from Ursa Major

Ursa Major is full of strangeness. For example, M82 - the exploding galaxy, or NGC 2976 - the spiral that is not a spiral. This image is of another strange galaxy. It is NGC 3077, thought to be an elliptical, but classed by some as an Irregular. At first glance it looks like a typical elliptical galaxy, but look again. There are dust lanes and tendrils in it very similar to the ones seen in M82. Conventional wisdom tells us that Elliptical Galaxies have no dust or gases, and are simply large oval clusters of stars. The accepted knowledge says this galaxy should not have these dust lanes, or whatever they are. However, we do not make the rules. Here is an elliptical which apperantly breaks our preconcieved notions of these objects.

My image does not do it justice. I had some problems with the bright star flaring on the main lens of my scope, and making a big ugly smear or two right above the galaxy. I took this image with my ST7 and 6 inch sct. It is 9 thirteen minute images median stacked and deconvolved.

More of Ursa Major... NGC 2403

I thought I would go ahead and image some other objects in Ursa Major, since my scope is set-up for this region right now, and I will have to re-balance everything to move someplace else. This galaxy is known as NGC 2403. It is very large and can be seen in a 4" scope very easily. It is near M81/82. This object is big enough and bright enough that Charles Messier should have caught it in his first catalogue survey, but did not. I underestimated it's size a little, and it is not centered well on the chip. I had to crop it to keep it even. It is a composite of 13 ten minute images with the ST7 ccd, all shot through the C6 sct at F6.3.

Not really a very interesting galaxy, it sort of looks like a big blur. It has a similar appearance to M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, but is pretty asymmetrical.

First Image with 8 inch Astrograph

Here are the first two images from the new 8 inch scope. They are of spiral galaxy M81, taken with the Orion DSCI 1 CCD. The color image is a stack of 18 five minute exposures. The mono image is a stack of a dozen 5 minute exposures shot binned 2x2. The focus and collimation could be better, but all in all, it is not too bad.
All images shot guided with the SV Nighthawk II and a DSI Pro.