The previous night I had collected five hours of data on M106 to find that DSS couldn't find enough stars in the subs!! I think it must be the contrast reducing effect of a full moon. I need to revisit that one to be sure.
Anyway, in order ot check it wasn't a problem with DSS, I took some more subs of M81 and then combined them with ones I took in April last year. So, around 5 hours of L and 40 mins each of R, G and B.
I must admit, I am quite pleased!
Not a lot of data, only about 1 hour in L and 20 mins in RGB, plus DEW!!!
Prior to this , a lot of trouble with the software. Could not get Plate Solving to work in APT. Then the whole thing crashed when I didn't disconnect from EQMOD ASCOM properly. SO, virtually everything ended up being reinstalled. The nan hour or two having trouble getting the drivers to load; In the end I had to install them as Administrator - considering I was logged on as Admin, very strange.
Now, everything seems to be ok and at least I managed to get some data, although most of it through a dew covered front plate.
And of course, full moon!
Still worth saving, just!
An interesting galaxy, see below.
Wikipedia:
Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.A Type II supernova was observed in M106 in May 2014.
M106 has a water vapor megamaser (the equivalent of a laser operating in microwave instead of visible light and on a galactic scale) that is seen by the 22-GHz line of ortho-H2O that evidences dense and warm molecular gas. These water vapors give M106 its characteristic purple color. Water masers are useful to observe nuclear accretion disks in active galaxies. The water masers in M106 enabled the first case of a direct measurement of the distance to a galaxy, thereby providing an independent anchor for the cosmic distance ladder. M106 has a slightly warped, thin, almost edge-on Keplerian disc which is on a subparsec scale. It surrounds a central area with mass 4 × 107M⊙.
It is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, similar in size and luminosity to the Andromeda Galaxy. The supermassive black hole at the core has a mass of (3.9±0.1)×107 M☉.[15]
M106 has also played an important role in calibrating the cosmic distance ladder. Before, Cepheid variables from other galaxies could not be used to measure distances since they cover ranges of metallicities different from the Milky Way's. M106 contains Cepheid variables similar to both the metallicities of the Milky Way and other galaxies' Cepheids. By measuring the distance of the Cepheids with metallicities similar to our galaxy, astronomers are able to recalibrate the other Cepheids with different metallicities, a key fundamental step in improving quantification of distances to other galaxies in the universe.
A very crisp and cold night. I added more luminance data and also collected some RGB for NGC 2841. There is now around 4 hours in L and an hour each in R, G and B.
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| NGC 2841 in Ursa Major |
A very frosty and clear night, though the moon was gibbous. I chose NGC 2841 as a target and captured around 3 1/4 hours of data at 114 s, gain 139.
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| NGC 2841 in Ursa Major |
Wikipedia:
NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. A 2001 Hubble Space Telescope survey of the galaxy's Cepheid variables determined its distance to be approximately 14.1 megaparsecs or 46 million light-years.
This is the prototype for the flocculent spiral galaxy, a type of spiral galaxy whose arms are patchy and discontinuous. The morphological class is SAa, indicating a spiral galaxy with no central bar and very tightly-wound arms. There is no grand design structure visible in the optical band, although some inner spiral arms can be seen in the near infrared.
The properties of NGC 2841 are similar to those of the Andromeda Galaxy. It is home to a large population of young blue stars, and a few H II regions. The luminosity of the galaxy is 2×1010 M☉ and it has a combined mass of 7×1010 M☉. Its disk of stars can be traced out to a radius of around 228 kly (70 kpc). This disk begins to warp at a radius of around 98 kly (30 kpc), suggesting the perturbing effect of in-falling matter from the surrounding medium.
The rotational behavior of the galaxy suggests there is a massive nuclear bulge,with a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region at the core; a type of region that is characterized by spectral line emission from weakly ionized atoms. A prominent molecular ring is orbiting at a radius of 7–20 kly (2–6 kpc), which is providing a star-forming region of gas and dust. The nucleus appears decoupled and there is a counter-rotating element of stars and gas in the outer parts of the nucleus, suggesting a recent interaction with a smaller galaxy.
This image is based on around 90mins of 114 s , gain 139, offset 21, exposures, all in luminance. Finally done some new flats, but moved the camera slightly when checking for dust, so still not the best.
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| NGC 672 in Triangulum |
Interesting galaxy, plus several small ones in the background.
Wikipedia: NGC 672 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Triangulum, positioned around 2° to the southwest of the star Alpha Trianguli.
This galaxy is located at a distance of approximately 23.4 megalight-years from the Milky Way,where it forms an interacting pair with the irregular galaxy IC 1727. In the neutral hydrogen radio band, a tidal bridge is observed between the galaxNGC 672 appears to be the more massive of the two, and hence IC 1727 shows more distortion from the interaction. Together they form members of a combined group of galaxies that includes NGC 784.
The morphological classification of NGC 672 is SB(s)cd, which indicates this is a barred spiral galaxy (SB), with no ring structure around the central bar (s), and moderately to loosely-wound spiral arms. In the visual spectrum, the galaxy appears symmetrical with clearly defined spiral arms.
Last few times I have ben concerned the mount was not accurately aligned, so the first thing done tonight was to check the polar alignment. I gave up using the polarscope and in the end used the Drift tool in APT. This seemed to work very well and thereafter the scope went to its target fairly accurately, with Sync being used to correct any slight errors.
I ended up looking at a couple of galaxies, one of which I imaged in Jan this year. Next job is to redo the flats, those dust bunnies are still there!
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| IC2166 in Lynx |
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| NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis |
