Post by atomant on Dec 1, 2011 17:00:54 GMT -6
Was able to sneak over to Conway Observatory with Paulie the day before Turkey Day, for some fall weather observing.
I wanted to check out the Autumn galaxies as we look at skies away from our own galaxy.
To prepare for cold weather imaging, I decided to take the ST80, a short tube 80mm achromatic refractor at focal length of 400mm.
At f/5, exposures would be short and sweet at around 2min ISO800 per shot with Nikon D5000 entry level DSLR.
Note: with the ST80, you will notice violet halo around bright stars, there is vignetting due to 1.25" visual back, elongated stars along the perimeter due to field curvature and not quite pinpoint stars due to cold pinched optics.
Note the image scale of the objects in the tour.
We start with the grand dame, M31 Andromeda and her cohorts.
Riding high in the sky away from the muck, the short tube easily fit the threesome in a 25mm eyepiece. The farthest away object still visible with the naked eye. A nice telescope object from the city.
Next is the elusive M33, Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum.
With an 8in or larger scope, you will pickup the face-on spiral.
You will also be able to see NGC604, a nebula larger than Orion in one of the arms.
cropped, showing location of NGC604
We move toward the knot in Pisces and find M74.
This is one tough Messier; light buckets are needed.
Moving onward to Cetus the Whale, we find the strange M77.
At first glance, it looks like a star with its bright core.
Here it is cropped.
There are quite a few galaxies in this "empty" area in the sky.
More galaxies in the area.
Here it is cropped.
Speeding down toward the South Galactic Pole in Sculptor, we find the quite large NGC253, Silver Dollar Galaxy.
Here it is cropped.
Finally, close out the observing session with some city favorites.
Subaru
The Great Orion Sword
Amazed what dark skies can do to little scopes.
Next tour....Winter Open Clusters
I wanted to check out the Autumn galaxies as we look at skies away from our own galaxy.
To prepare for cold weather imaging, I decided to take the ST80, a short tube 80mm achromatic refractor at focal length of 400mm.
At f/5, exposures would be short and sweet at around 2min ISO800 per shot with Nikon D5000 entry level DSLR.
Note: with the ST80, you will notice violet halo around bright stars, there is vignetting due to 1.25" visual back, elongated stars along the perimeter due to field curvature and not quite pinpoint stars due to cold pinched optics.
Note the image scale of the objects in the tour.
We start with the grand dame, M31 Andromeda and her cohorts.
Riding high in the sky away from the muck, the short tube easily fit the threesome in a 25mm eyepiece. The farthest away object still visible with the naked eye. A nice telescope object from the city.
Next is the elusive M33, Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum.
With an 8in or larger scope, you will pickup the face-on spiral.
You will also be able to see NGC604, a nebula larger than Orion in one of the arms.
cropped, showing location of NGC604
We move toward the knot in Pisces and find M74.
This is one tough Messier; light buckets are needed.
Moving onward to Cetus the Whale, we find the strange M77.
At first glance, it looks like a star with its bright core.
Here it is cropped.
There are quite a few galaxies in this "empty" area in the sky.
More galaxies in the area.
Here it is cropped.
Speeding down toward the South Galactic Pole in Sculptor, we find the quite large NGC253, Silver Dollar Galaxy.
Here it is cropped.
Finally, close out the observing session with some city favorites.
Subaru
The Great Orion Sword
Amazed what dark skies can do to little scopes.
Next tour....Winter Open Clusters
