Sky this Week

While searching for comet 43P last night (didn’t find it), I took a break from the search for a while and imaged NGC 3395 and 3396.

NGC 3395 and 3396 are a fairly bright pair of galaxies (visual magnitude 12.1) in constellation Leo Minor. Both galaxies are at an estimated distance of 85 million light years and are thought to be in the process of merging. UV observations with the Hubble telescope have found knots of material believed to be star forming regions in both galaxies.

NGC 3396 is to the upper left and 3395 is at a right angle and down in below image (north is approximately up and east to the left).

I decided to try taking some images of Messier 51 with the Canon 300D last evening despite partly cloudy skies and a crescent moon. Transparency was generally good though there were occasional thin clouds, temperature 45°F, turbulence 6/10. Equipment used as Celestron Nexstar11, Celestron F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D. I handguided for around 40 minutes to obtain 16, 2 minute exposurers at ASA 400. ImagePlus software was used to dark subtract, flat field correct, stack, and align the best 8 of 16 images.

Wider field versions are available 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1024×768, and 800×600.

Messier 51 (NGC 5194), the whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici is thought to be quite similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in mass, size, and luminosity. M51 is an excellent example of a face-on spiral that can be seen in a small telescope (8″) under a dark sky. It is believed to be interacting gravitationally with is neighbor to the north, NGC 5195.

Last evening I met up with fellow amateur astronomers at the Crow Valley Campground near Briggsdale, CO. It was quite cloudy when I arrived about half an hour after sunset. We spent a couple hours talking about good times last summer and making plans for possible star party trips to the Texas Star Party, northwestern Nebraska, Mt. Evans, CU Mountain Observatory, and our favorite, Fox Park, Wyo. The sky cleared shortly after 8pm. It was fairly cold, around 8 degrees F, but fortunately very little wind.

I set up the 300D to take some time exposures, but was quite dismayed when I remembered that the batteries were still in the charger back at home! Fortuanately, I had brought along the Stellacam2 so I set it up on the Celestron Nexstar11 with a 0.33 focal reducer. I was quite pleased to discover that I could set the gain very high (12/14) and still not have much background noise. Normally I can only set to about 8 or 9/14.

Around 00:30 I took this image of M51 and its companion to the north NGC 5195.

At the same time I was imaging this, my friend Gary was looking at it in his 30 inch dob nearby. It was really cool to compare the views. M51 is an awesome object in his 30 inch. The spiral arms are absolutely amazing to trace and dark lane extending below NGC 5195 is very apparent. The image on the notebook from the Stellacam2 is pretty stunning as well. The image is much noisier, but the same structures can be seen. Still though, it just can’t compare to the view through a large scope at dark site.