NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 (Siamese Twins)

Finally, I have been wanting to image this for a long time but never had enough focal length to do it justice until now. NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, commonly known as the Siamese Twins and also the Butterfly Galaxies, are located approximately 70 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. To me the Butterfly makes the most sense if you feel it necessary to apply nicknames. These galaxies are in the early stages of colliding with each other so there is not much apparent disturbance between them yet. The galaxies are quite similar to each other but one interesting difference is the color, NGC 4568 appears slightly yellow and NGC 4567 appears slightly blue.

I left the field a bit larger than most images taken with similar equipment because I wanted to keep the yellowish galaxy NGC 4564 on the left and the fainter bluish galaxy IC 3578 on the right.  Many other faint fuzzies are scattered throughout this image.  Although I only stacked 173 subframes, I collected much more but weather conditions often deteriorate quite rapidly around these parts.  Lastly, you may have noticed the collection dates vs. the publication, this is due to a combination of factors such as the extra end of the school year stuff, my own projects, family stuff, waiting for better weather, and my own slow processing speed.    

Dates: 4-30, 5-17, 5-19, 5-21

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NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 (Siamese Twins)
Dates: 4-30, 5-17, 5-19, 5-21
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 173 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, GradientXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 5906 or NGC 5907 - Splinter Galaxy

Located approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation Draco is an edge-on spiral galaxy known as NGC 5906 also known as NGC 5907. It also goes by the Splinter Galaxy and less commonly the Knife Edge Galaxy. It is a little bigger than our own galaxy at 180,000 light-years across and is known to be composed mainly of stars with low metallicity which means most of the stars have only hydrogen and helium and little else.

I started imaging this after reading Gary Imm's writeup for his excellent version of this. In his description he mentioned tidal streams discovered in 2006. I thought it might be cool to capture those streams. However, after doing more research I discovered they were captured by R.J. GaBany who specializes in these tidal streams and often works with professional astronomers (GaBany Image). I searched Astrobin and only found a couple of other images that somewhat show these and they were from very dark sites. Other images from astrophotographers much better than myself do not show the streams so I decided to forget this and go with the main part of the galaxy.

Despite the lack of streams it does have some interesting structure in that it appears elongated with many intersecting dust lanes especially on the right side of my image.  Lastly, this hopefully should be the last image which shows the menacing blips on some of the larger stars caused by loose a connection on my mount. I had a long talk with my quality control person who is responsible for setting up my equipment.

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NGC 5906 or NGC 5907 - Splinter Galaxy
Dates: 4-8, 4-12, 4-13
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 276 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, GradientXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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Lunar Eclipse 5-15-22

Here are some images that were luckily collected at Boothe Park at BMAS Eclipse Event as the weather was not promising. It was quite humorous as we set up for the first time when it was partially clear then it started rain so we broke down, then it cleared for a second time so we set up again then it started rain so we broke down again, then it cleared so we set up again for a third then it started rain so we broke down again, Finally it cleared somewhat and did not rain. Only Mark was smart enough to actually bring a cover.

My images were all taken with my modified Canon T3i (600d) and a Canon 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens mounted on an iOptron Skyguider Pro. I was going to connect it to a telescope but decided to keep observing it instead - besides there are so many other great images from other people already.

Canon 200mm, f/4.0, ISO 400, 0.5s & 2s

Canon 200mm, f/4.0, ISO 400, 2s

Canon 50mm, f/4.0, ISO 400, 1s

Canon 200mm, f/4.0, ISO 400, 1/8s

NGC 5466 - Mel 124 - Snowglobe Cluster (Ghost Globular Cluster)

NGC 5466 is a globular cluster located 51,800 light-years from Earth in the constellation Bootes. It is extremely old at approximately 12.5 billion years. It has an unusually sparse core and happens to be the same distance from the center of the Milky Way as it is from us. I did not find a whole lot of general information on this cluster but one interesting thing stands out is that it has a linear branch of blue stars running through it. Also the majority of the stars are metal poor compared to other globular clusters.

I imaged this because I did not want to waste another rare clear night just because the moon was out so I went for something that a moon would not wash out much. I did not crop this much because the field of view contained many smaller galaxies, some of which show a bit of structure. My favorite is PCG 50187, the one on the right side of the image. I was also surprised and happy with the colors in starfield as well as within the cluster.  

NGC 5466 - Mel 124 - Snowglobe Cluster (Ghost Globular Cluster)
Dates: 5-12-22
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader Moon and Skyglow (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 180 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, GradientXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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NGC 3190 - Leo Quartet - Hickson 44 - Arp 316

The NGC 3190 galaxy cluster or the Leo Quartet is quite popular for astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere.  The group consists of four gravitational bound galaxies about 70 million light-years away in constellation Leo. Other names include the Hickson 44 named after Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and Arp 316.  One of the reasons this group is so cool is that it contains various galaxy types, including spiral, elliptical, barred, and distorted.  

NGC 3190 is the spiral edge-on galaxy with the thick distinctive dust lane(s) - this was one of my favorite parts of the image.  Oddly it is also labeled NGC 3189 and was having some difficulty finding a reason why doing regular searches until I went to Gary Imm`s Astrobin where he discovered it was originally thought to be two objects.  

The heavily distorted NGC 3187, is an S-shaped spiral galaxy, located just right of NGC 3190.  Interactions with nearby galaxies were responsible for the distortion and may have led to the formation of bright blue star clusters throughout the galaxy giving it its bluish tint.  NGC 3193 the large fuzzy elliptical galaxy with a yellow tint located above and to the left of NGC 3190.  A very colorful well structured spiral galaxy, NGC 3185, is located on the bottom central portion of the image.  The outer arms look detached from the central core but I believe that is an illusion.  Numerous small galaxies can be found if you look carefully. 

I left the two very large stars on the top in my image for some reason - I like them! HIP 50444 is the magnitude 7.65 (7.79 absolute) yellow star in the top center while HIP 50364 is the magnitude 7.60 (3.33 absolute) blue star on the right. My stars do look a bit wonky and unfortunately my next image taken with my Edge800 will also have this issue. I thought it was because I put the new Celestron Dew Ring in place of the normal holder ring wrong somehow because I started getting the intermittent star shape/streaks right after replacing it even though guiding was good. Turns out after re-attaching it and doing other stuff I finally diagnosed what the problem was. The Atlas Pro mount has a weird pressure plate attachment when using it with the 8-inch extender which can come loose every so often. It was not until several nights after that I realized this was the problem - oh well. I won't make this mistake again, hopefully.  I last imaged this over three years ago and needless to say, a great improvement! 

NGC 3190 - Leo Quartet - Hickson 44 - Arp 316
Dates: 3-22, 3-29, 4-29, 4-30
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 267 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, GradientXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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M100 Widefield (First Light ASI2600MC)

This first light image for the ADI2600 is just under two hours and yet it was much more detailed than I was expecting for this integration - the galaxies show an amazing amount of detail if you zoom in. The field of view has an extraordinary amount of galaxies including seven Messier Galaxies which is not surprising since looking into the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Messier 100 or M100 is a lovely spiral galaxy located at the center of my field. On the lower right is a line of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain named after Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion. I have attached an annotated image showing some of the larger galaxies but many more are also found hiding in the image.

I purchased this camera to be part of a portable setup to use with camera lenses, in particular the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM mounted on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro which I already own. To run everything I will use the ASIair which is on order, I already use one to run the Edge and have been very happy with it. This system is so compact that I may be able to take it on the airplane without too much fanfare.

I was going back and forth with this camera and the ASI533 which is significantly cheaper but with less than half the FOV. Ultimately the ASI2600MC won out since I wanted to do larger FOV imaging in the first place. Other plans for this setup include doing milky way shots with landscapes which I am not sure are easy to do with an astrocam and attaching this to the Edge when I do hyperstar imaging.

All in all I am happy so far but I should mention that the exposure file size for this APS size camera is ~50,000 KB which makes stacking times noticeably longer. For reference my ASI294 file size is 23,000 KB and my ASI1600 file size is 32,000 KB. ZWO has a full frame camera, ASI6200, I can only imagine the stacking time...

M100 Widefield (First Light ASI2600MC)

Dates: 4-10 & 4-29
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4 with stepdown rings
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel/Drawer: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV/IR
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini 30/120mm Guidescope
Exposure: 57 x 30, 39 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, Gradiant Xterminator.

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