M63 (2023)

Messier 63 (a.k.a. M63, NGC 5055, or the Sunflower Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. At approximately 30 million light-years away and 100 thousand across the galaxy contains a central disc surrounded by many short spiral arm segments. It is part of the M51 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes M51 (the 'Whirlpool Galaxy'). Also of note, in 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the arms. The spiral nature of the arms appears to be discontinuous and loose in visible light so it is also considered a flocculent galaxy.

This is a very popular image among astrophotographers so it may be surprising that it is only the second time I imaged this, the first time was an unimpressive attempt from over six years ago. As usual I have three different versions differing mainly in the color and not which is the best. However, I believe this version highlights the fine detail the best. I find these larger galaxies particularly challenging to process due to the color varitions.

I did not collect any hydrogen data but I wish I would have plenty of rich star forming Ha regions in this galaxy. One thing that I did not capture are some newly detected very faint arc star streams believed to be remnents of satellite galaxies distorted by tidal forces. To capture this a faster scope along with darker site would be required or highly recommended.  

I had to trash 120 exposures (one night's worth of data) due to smoke from wildfires in Alberta. Lastly, I seemed to have improved my star shapes by loosing and tightening the screws holding the dew heater ring which may have been pinching the corrector plate.

M63 (2023)
Dates: 5-9-23, 5-10, 5-11, 5-14
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 383 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks

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NGC 3521 (2023)

This is my version of NGC 3521, a very cool looking spiral galaxy in Leo. I decided to go after this object like I choose most of my objects and that is searching Stellarium. It is a decent size which was important since I was using the AT115 refractor rather than the Edge800. It is 35 million light-years away and 50,000 light-years across. It is quite colorful with pink star-forming regions as well as blue clusters. I was very surprised with the flocculent nature surrounding the core as well as some of the other finer structures in the arms. The other unusual feature of NGC 3521 is that it sits inside fainter bubble-like shells. These shells are believed to be tidal debris from satellite galaxies that have merged with NGC 3521 long ago.

I did crop this image to get a closer view but not too far as I really like the colorful starfield. The better shaped stars are the benefit of the refractor over the SCT but of course you lose out in focal length. Several small galaxies can be spied on in the background as well which is another reason for not cropping too much.

NGC 3521 (2023)
Dates: 4-12-23, 4-13, 4-17, 4-20, 4-21, 4-24, 4-25
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: None, ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: None 132 x 90, R 94 x 90, G 82 x 90, B 72 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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NGC 4725 & NGC 4712 (2023)

Although these galaxies appear close, they are actually quite far apart. NGC 4725 is the closest galaxy at 40 million light-years away and happens to be the smaller one even though it appears larger. It is a barred spiral galaxy over 100 thousand light-years across. Interestingly, the galaxy only has one large arm that makes 2-1/2 revolutions around the core. The arm has many prominent blue regions indicating newborn star clusters. The smaller galaxy, NGC 4712, is larger than NGC 4725 in actual size at 150,000 light-years across but is over 200 million light-years away. I decided to image this by doing a random search on Stellarium and thought it would make a good project with my C8. Ironically, I found many other people that I follow also doing this object - great minds think alike.

There appears to be many smaller galaxies in this Field of View which is not surprising given the location in the constellation of Coma Berenices, a region of space rich in galaxies. NGC 4725 had a surprising amount of detail as did NGC 4712. The central dust lanes are really quite visible and even the faint ones near the core. The colors were fairly easy to pull out without much adjustment, however, that made not going overboard with color saturation difficult especially for me since I tend to saturate to the fullest extent. With this in mind I held back and attempted not to oversaturate.

NGC 4725 & NGC 4712 (2023)
Dates: 4-12-23, 4-13, 4-19, 4-20, 4-25
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 475 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks

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Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars

This is my version of the emission nebula Sh2-284 (also known as LBN 983 & LBN 984). Sh2-284 is a star forming region of gas and dust located in the constellation Monoceros approximately 15,000 light-years from the Earth. I really like the edges of the main portion as there are several "elephant trunk" formations - huge pillars of gas and dust that stretch into the central portion of the nebula. My favorite is the pillar located on the bottom which resembles a forefinger of a hand pointing upwards to the stars in the center of the nebula. These pillars are formed by the intense radiation and stellar winds from the very hot stars of the open cluster designated Dolidze 25. The cluster is very young at about 3 to 4 million years and is responsible for clearing a central void in the surrounding nebula. Overall the nebula is approximately 150 light-years across.

I was really happy about imaging this as it was somewhat low in a location where I had a limited window. Nine nights of imaging began February 21 and ended on March 26. My new Antlia 3nm filters were used capturing the Ha and OIII narrowband data. Processing was fun and a bit tedious as I did it using the normal SHO combining methods but simultaneously using the Colorized SHO processing method (colorize OIII to blue, SII to yellow-red, and Ha to gold and then combine them using Pixel Math). This was only the second time I used this method and I wanted to ensure the base image was at least as good or better than the normal method. Interestingly, they were similar in color, however, the Colorized version did seem slightly better so I went with it. I am pretty happy with the results and think it is quite interesting how inside the OIII inside the gold-red ring is a turquoise color where the OIII outside the ring is deeper blue.

Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars

Dates: 2-21-23, 2-24, 2-26, 3-8, 3-9, 3-16, 3-19, 3-20, 3-26

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO R, G, B, SII
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 77 x 300, OIII 65 x 300, SII 55 x 300, R 32 x 60, G 20 x 60, B 30 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Bill Blanshan Masks.

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On the Border (Perseus & Cassiopeia)!

Amazing what can be captured in 22 minutes in Bortle 3.5-4.0 skies at 7600 ft (2300 m). This is another image from just outside of Santa Fe taken with my Canon nifty fifty camera lens. The nifty fifty is actually a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens and it is surprisingly good for medium to wide field astrophotography especially considering the price. In this image are lots of star clusters, emission nebulae, and dark nebulae. The highlights for clusters is the Double Cluster (NGC 869 & 884) in the center but many others are scattered throughout such as the Lawnmower (NGC 663), Yin-Yang (NGC 659), Fuzzy Butterfly (NGC 654), and Dragonfly (NGC 457). Two gorgeous emission nebulae, The Heart (IC 1805) and Soul (IC 1848) are just north of the Double Cluster. In addition to these emission nebulae, there are a few very dark regions composed of molecular gas and dust, these are the dark nebulae.

I really like how it came out but I would have been able to pickup more photons had I set to a lower f-stop than f/4 (I forgot to change it), however, the stars probably better shaped because the high f-stop.

On the Border (Perseus & Cassiopeia)!

Camera: Canon T3i/600d modified
Telescope: Canon 50mm f/1.8 Lens

Aperture: f/4
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 50mm
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: iOptron Skyguider Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: none
Filter: none
Focuser: none
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 22 x 60
Gain/ISO: 1600
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator
GradientXTerminator, BTX.

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Venus, Pleiades, & Lens Flare (Oops)?

So my wife and I were vacationing in Santa Fe staying with her sister and brother-in-law whose house happens to border Santa Fe National Forest. I brought my wide angle portable setup and saw that Venus was very close to M45, The Pleiades Cluster, and decided to see if I could get a decent image before it went behind a tree. I did have the 200mm Canon Lens but not the counter weight for the iOptron Skyguider Pro or guidescope so exposures would have to be limited to 15 seconds. I managed to get twenty seven exposures which correlates to six minutes and forty five seconds so I was not expecting much but when I looked at the raw data on the computer I saw what looked like a small comet.

I did some checking but could not find any information about a comet in this region. In addition, the amount of movement in the almost seven minutes seemed fast (approximately 0.8 degrees in 6-minutes). Another thought I had was a meteor but it would be too slow for it to be that. Lastly, if you look closely, the object appears as three broken fragments but I am not positive of this as the single exposures show it as one unit. If this is the case then the breakup may be just an artifact from the comet Alignment function in PixInsight.

As expected, with such a small amount of exposure time, the noise level was quite high and there were gradients especially since I did not use any flats. Because of this I had to do a lot of processing gymnastics. Before realizing there was a comet or whatever it is, I thought this was going to be an easy object to process.

If anyone has any idea what this is please let me know in the comments. I have also attached it as a video animation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgiMmfDuAE).

Date & Time:

10-April-2023, 9:27-9:42pm MDT

Addendum:

The Figure 1 is starting image and Figure 2 is the image from 15 minutes later. Venus does move a bit but not corrosponding to the unknown thing (reflection). Although maybe that is all that is needed.

Figure 1 - Start

Figure 2 - End

Venus, Pleiades, & Something? 

Dates: 4-10-23
Camera: Canon T3i/600d modified
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4 with stepdown rings
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: iOptron Skyguider Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: none
Filter: none
Focuser: none
Autoguiding: none

Exposure: 27 x 15
Gain/ISO: 1600
Processing: ASIAIR Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GHS,
GradientXTerminator, BTX.

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NGC 3227 & NGC 3226 - Arp 94

This rather odd looking object in the center is a large intermediate spiral, NGC 3227, that is interacting with a dwarf elliptical galaxy, NGC 3226. Intermediate refers to it being between a barred and unbarred spiral galaxy. Together these cosmic tidal dance partners are known as Arp 94 and are approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.

NGC 3227 is a Seyfert galaxy which means it has an active galactic nucleus and releases huge amounts of energy in the form of X-rays. As with most Seyfert galaxies which contain black holes, this one has a supermassive black hole in its core.

I really like the very distorted outer regions of the interacting galaxies and also the flocculating structure near the core. There appears to be a dense lobe in the faint outer region on both sides which I am guessing may be drawfs or parts of arms torn off by tidal forces. Neither galaxy seems to show much color variation but I kind of like the golden color. The rest of the field is loaded with galaxies of all types and sizes although they all appear small since they are much further away. Some of these smaller galaxies appear to be in clusters. Some of the highlights are NGC 3222 located on the central right at approximately 178 million ly; PGC 3754953 located on the top at approximately 102 million ly; PGC 30397 and PGC 1065532 located on the lower right at approximately 120 million ly and are most likely interacting.

I imaged this over four nights, however, I only used two nights worth of data proving that less data is better - Ha Ha. Normally it would be a weather issue but what happened on the third night is more sinister. When the session was done I removed the dew shield and I noticed the corrector plate was covered in dew. My first thought was that the dew ring was broken, however, upon closer examination I saw that I never connected it! I know some of you imagers in certain regions probably don't know what a dew heater is but they are a necessity in the northeast. On the last night of imaging it appeared to be clear but the seeing was not good so I did not use it. Originally I started making an image using all the data after running Subframe Selector but after seeing how the image looked I stacked them night by night and saw the degradation. So out of the 307 total exposures, only 140 were used.

Another issue I had was a weird circular reflection which turned out to be from the bright star Algieba in Leo. I was able to do a bit of processing to get rid of it.

 

NGC 3227 & NGC 3226 - Arp 94 (2023)
Dates: 3-19-23, 3-19
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 140 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX

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