Messier 99 (2024)

This is my latest version of Messier 99 (M99), my only other version of this is from 2017 taken with my Canon T3i/600d attached to the ED80. M99, also known as NGC 4254 or St. Catherine's Wheel, is a spiral galaxy located 40 million light years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. It is approximately 40 million light-years away and 75,000 ly in diameter. Numerous other galaxies much further away than M99 are also present in this image.

Although the galaxy looks to be face-on, it is actually inclined 42° from our line of sight. Another interesting item is that one arm is more tightly wound than the other and the core seems to be slightly offset from the center. Interactions with other galaxies are the likely cause of the peculiar shape. The galaxy is not classified as a starburst galaxy, however, studies indicate that it has star formation 3x larger than other similar galaxies. As evidence many blue star clusters make up the arms and give it a blue tint. Note: Hydrogen nebular regions which would normally appear red are also found in the arms but unfortunately I was unable to bring them out - I did collect some Ha data which would have helped but it did not look good due to bad sky conditions or camera ice so I did not use it.

Dates: 5-2-24, 5-12, 5-28, 5-30, 5-31, 6-1, 6-3

Higher Quality:

https://www.astrobin.com/pjxd6k/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Messier 99 (2024)
Dates: 5-2-24, 5-12, 5-28, 5-30, 5-31, 6-1, 6-3
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: Camera UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: Askar M54 OAG/ZWO ASI174 mini
Exposure: UV-IR 455 x 90 (11h 22m)
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Colormasks, Bill's Stretching, GraXpert, GradientXT, Topaz Denoise

Solar Animation from 5-26-24

This is the final run from my April 26 imaging session with the ZWO ASI174. I decided to do an animation/time-lapse to finish off for the day. I collected several 500 frame bursts every 30s for 27 minutes to make this time lapse. I really like these solar animations as they show how dynamic the sun really is. It is certainly not the best time lapse as it is overly above the chromosphere and there are still some blurry frames (although I did remove several). I could go on with critiquing it but I learned quite a bit by doing it. For one thing I did a lot of Batch Processing work using many different programs. The process I used was from the Youtube channels of Chuck's Astro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXijbjkclMc&t=647s) and AZAstroguy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4yHtkpVY4&t=11s).

Basically it was Sharpcap (capturing), AutoStakkert (stacking), PixInsight (crop), IMPPG (sharpen, align), Photoshop (color, time/lapse), Topaz DeNoise (sharpen), and I attempted to use NAFE. I don't know if I could have improved it as so much depends on the seeing conditions and by the time I did this, the conditions were deteriorating.

In addition to the flares on the end, the surface shows quite a bit of neat activity as well.

Higher Quality:

https://www.astrobin.com/tcdbgp/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Solar Animation from 5-26-24
Date: 5-26-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 27 min (100 of 500 every 30s)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 66
Temp: 15 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, PixInsight, IMPPG, Photoshop

Surface Features from 5-26-24

In my ongoing journey to the sun, this image focuses on some of the surface details of the chromosphere. Numerous sunspots (3691, 3695, 3690, 3693, & 3692) and filaments are visible. A fairly active region located on the left side contains multiple sunspots including 3691 and 3695. On the right hand side a long narrow dark brown linear structure known as a filament seems to point towards a smaller active region that includes the sunspot 3692.

This was captured last week at roughly the same time as the flares from my previous post. Similar processing was in order to bring out the surface detail and this was a bit easier since there were no flares to bring out.

Higher Quality
https://www.astrobin.com/8i11gw/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Surface Features from 5-26-24
Date: 5-26-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 100 x 7.612 ms (100 of 500)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 66
Temp: 15 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, IMPPG, Photoshop

Solar Flares/Prominances from 5-26-24

This image focuses on the solar flares/prominences, however, the chromosphere does show some amazing structure. I like the swirling flames of these prominences and they look better than ones I have captured up to this point. The previous full disk image was with an inexpensive white light filter whereas this was with an expensive eyepiece solar filter known as a Quark. The Daystar Quark uses a specialized hydrogen etalon filter designed for solar imaging. I have the Chromosphere model which focuses mainly on the surface but does a decent job on the flares. There is a Flare model that focuses on the flares rather than on the surface. Rumor has it that the Chromosphere does a better overall job so I went with it instead of the Flare model. There is also a Gemini model which can switch between the flares and chromosphere but it is twice the price.

I used Sharpcap for capturing and am getting more comfortable with it. Processing was done with AutoStackert, IMPPG, and Photoshop. I am sure a more experienced solar processor would be able to produce a better image but I am having a good time playing around with it.

 

Higher Quality 

https://www.astrobin.com/0tn0ow/?nc=collection&nce=712

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
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http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1

Solar Flares/Prominances from 5-26-24
Date: 5-26-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: DayStar Quark 4.2x
Focal Length: 600mm (2520mm w/Quark)
F/7.5 (F/31.5 w Quark)
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Quark
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 100 x 8.4020 ms (100 of 500)
Gain: 100
Offset 0
FPS: 65
Temp: 15 C
Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, IMPPG, Photoshop

Sunspots 5-26-24

What a difference one day makes as it is cloudy and rainy today! This was from yesterday and is my best solar image taken with a simple inexpensive white light filter (Daystar N5 film) - however, it was with my new solar camera (ZWO ASI174MM). Lots of sunspots (3695/3691-top left, 3690-just under the previous, 3693-lo the left, 3692-center, 3686/3685-bottom right). You can actually make out some other detail in addition to the sunspots which I was quite happy with.

Higher Quality - annotated version 

https://www.astrobin.com/2cd4d4/?nc=collection&nce=712

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Sunspots 5-26-24
Date: 5-26-24
Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80
Barlow: none
Focal Length: 600mm 
F/7.5 
Focal Reducer: none
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter Adaptor: None
Filter: Baader UV-IR, Daystar Solar Filter (SolarLite Film-N5)
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: None
Exposure: 100 x 9.9340 ms (100 of 500)

Gain: 100

Offset 0

FPS: 67 

Temp: 15 C

Processing: SharpCap, AutoStakkert, IMPPG, Photoshop

Messier 95 (2024)

This is my latest version of Messier 95, the previous version is from five years ago. M95 or NGC 3351 is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 38 million light-years away and 70,000 ly across making it about half the size of our own Milky Way. The spiral arms are tightly bound to the central core and contain many young blue stars as evidenced by the blue regions in the rings. Another interesting feature is the bright nuclear ring that surrounds the core. It is not clear to me why some galaxies have this but quite a few do. Also interesting to me is the dark red/brown dust lane across the inner core. 

This image is orders of magnitude better than my previous attempts which were captured with less than half the focal length as this version. Also my processing is much improved, however, given the relative size of this galaxy, I believe the focal length was the biggest factor.

https://www.astrobin.com/9gl4ni/?nc=collection&nce=712

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1

Messier 95 (2024)

Dates: 4-13-24, 4-25, 4-26, 5-8
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: Camera UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: Askar M54 OAG/ZWO ASI174 mini
Exposure: UV-IR 261 x 90 (6h 31')
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Colormasks, Bill's Stretching, GraXpert, Topaz Denoise

Caught a bit of the Aurora here in Monroe!

 Aurora in Monroe CT! 

Friday 5-10-24.

Location: Home Monroe, CT

Date: 5-10-24

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i/600d modified

Lens: Opteka 8mm fisheye

Barlow: None

Focal Length: 6.5mm

f/3.5

Focal Reducer: None

Mount: Tripod

Filter: Astronomik Clipin OWB 

Autoguiding: None

Exposure: 1 x 10s

ISO: 1600

Temp: 15 C

Post Processing: Photoshop, PixInsight.