M88 and M91

Along with M85, imaged on the same night, these were the last two Messier objects in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies I was able to image.  I am looking forward to shooting other objects such as nebula and clusters again.

M88 (a.k.a. NGC 4501) is a spiral galaxy about 50 to 60 million light-away in the constellation Coma Berenices.  It is one of the fifteen Messier objects that belong to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Interestingly, M88 seems to be on an elliptical orbit that is carrying it toward the cluster center, which is occupied by the giant elliptical galaxy M87.  M91 (a.k.a. NGC 4548 ) is a barred spiral galaxy located also in the Coma Berenices constellation and  is about 63 million light-years away from the earth.

Processing theis image proved more difficult as the subtraction method that I have been using on most of the other Virgo galaxies was giving me good results so I went back to Gradient Exterminator to remove the gradients and some of the noise.  M88 and M91 represent the 83rd the 84th Messier Object I have captured.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/Messier-Objects/

Wide Field

M88-Crop

M91-Crop

M88 and M91
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 5-18-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 60 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

M85

Messier 85 (a.k.a. as M85 or NGC 4382) is an elliptical galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation and is 60 million light-years away.  It is interacting with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4394, and a small elliptical galaxy called MCG 3-32-38.

I am almost caught up with processing images, just one more, as the weather has been very cloudy as of late.  Just by coincidence, M85 happens to be the 85th Messier object I captured for my catalog.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

Wide Field

Crop

M85
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 5-16-17, 5-18-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 24 x 90s, 27 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

M89-M90

This image contains M89 and M90 captured on 5/16/17 as part of an ongoing project to image all 110 Messier objects with an ED80 refractor.

M89 (a.k.a NGC 4552) is an elliptical galaxy 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.  M89 is unusual in that it appears perfectly spherical in shape while all other known elliptic galaxies are relatively elongated ellipsoids.  M90 (a.k.a NGC 4569) is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away also in the constellation Virgo.  M90 is a member of the Virgo Cluster and one of its largest and brightest spiral galaxies, even brighter than the Andromeda Galaxy.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

Wide Field

M89 Crop

M90 Crop

M89 and M90
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 5-16-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 45 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

M100 - The Blowdryer Galaxy

Last week proved to be pretty good for a couple of nights anyway as I was able to capture several of the Virgo galaxies.  This one, Messier 100 (a.k.a. M100 or NGC 4321) is a spiral galaxy located within the southern part of constellation Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located approximately 55 million light-years distant from Earth and has a diameter of 107,000 light years (source: wikipedia).

This also happens to be my 80th Messier object imaged with the Orion ED80 F/7.5 Refractor.  I am definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel although it my take another year.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

Wide Field

Crop

M100
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 5-15-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 45 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

M58-M59-M60

Very happy to capture some more Messier objects from Virgo last week when we finally had a bit of good weather.  The following image contains Messier 58 (a.k.a. M58 and NGC 4579) is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy approximately 68 million light-years away from Earth (far right). Messier 59 (a.k.a. M59 or NGC 4621) is an elliptical galaxy approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo with a supermassive black-hole in its center (left middle).

Messier 60 (a.k.a. NGC 4649) is an elliptical galaxy approximately 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It is part of a pair of galaxies known as Arp 116 with NGC 4647.  M60 is the third-brightest giant elliptical galaxy of the Virgo cluster of galaxies (far left).

With the addition of these galaxies, I know only have 31 Messier Objects left...
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

Wide Field

M58 Crop

M59 Crop

M60 Crop

M58-M59-M60
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 5-15-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm
f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 57 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy

Well the Sombrero Galaxy (M104 or NGC 4594) was the last image to be processed from images I took over two weeks ago.  Clouds and the moon have temporally put my deep sky imaging on hold.

Sombrero Galaxy is an spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 31 million light-years from Earth.  Smaller than the Milky Way, M104 has a diameter of approximately 50,000 light-years and has a bright nucleus. A prominent dark dust lane and a central bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero.

I am really liking the Synthetic Flat-Layer gradient removal method described by Trevor Jones from AstroBackyard to cleanup the gradients.  Since I do not use flats yet, my stacked image is loaded with vignetting and gradients.  I used to spend an enormous amount of time trying to make a decent image, however, this new method described by Trevor has cut my time in half and produces better results.  Of course using flats will make a world of difference as well but I have not been able to do it properly yet.  I need to see a video of somebody actually doing it in the field.

This represents number 76 on my catalog of Messier objects, only 34 remain.

Crop

Wide Field

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 4-29-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm
f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 54 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 17 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.

Markarian's Chain

Markarian's Chain is a beautiful string of galaxies that is part of the Virgo Cluster.  It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who did extensive research on these galaxies in the early 1960s.  Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. 

I took full advantage of the one clear night we had last weekend and imaged this object as well as M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.  One of the most interesting members of the chain are the galaxies NGC 4435 and NGC 4438. Together they make up what is known as The Eyes.  At 52 million light years away, the two interacting galaxies resemble eyes intently staring at something or someone.

In just imaging Markarian's Chain, I have manged to capture three more Messier objects for my catalog.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/Messier-Objects/

Markarian's Chain

Wide Field, with M87

M84 & M86 Crop

M87 Crop

The Eyes Crop

Markarian's Chain

Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 4-29-17
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm
f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 68 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 18 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools, StarTools.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/Messier-Objects/


Captured a Satellite While Imaging Markarian's Chain.  


Captured a Russian Satellite While Imaging Markarian's Chain.
Most people are not aware of how many satellites there are orbiting Earth. I checked Stellarium and it appears that the satellite photobombing my image was Molniya 3-41. It was originally part of a Russian military communications network but since 1967 the Molniya satellites are used for Russian TV.