Jose Suro
02-28-2008, 10:03 AM
Hi All,
One more galaxy. I'm posting this one to show the difference between wide and narrow fields. This galaxy is much further away (23 million light years) and therefore requires a larger telescope capable of much higher magnification. You can tell by the fewer stars in this image compared to the one I posted last. This was taken with my 11-inch scope in a single night, using a dedicated astro camera with a much smaller sensor, about 1/4 full frame, hence the tighter field (only 1200 pixels across). At this magnification things get very dicey for astrophotography. Everything has to be perfect, including the "seeing" (lack of atmospheric turbulence), for a succesful shoot.
Discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, M51 is a "grand design" spiral galaxy and is interacting with another galaxy - NGC 5195. M51 is actually devouring it :). It's apparent size is only 11.2 arc-minutes, roughly 1/6 of a degree. The light captured here is 23 million years old - if you think about it, from long before there were humans walking around! There are two small elongated light sources on the bottom left of the image. These are other galaxies, so far away that the light reaching us now is so old the dinosaurs were probably not even around then.
Thanks for looking.
Best,
Jose
http://jsuro.smugmug.com/photos/259799979_iFbsy-O.jpg
One more galaxy. I'm posting this one to show the difference between wide and narrow fields. This galaxy is much further away (23 million light years) and therefore requires a larger telescope capable of much higher magnification. You can tell by the fewer stars in this image compared to the one I posted last. This was taken with my 11-inch scope in a single night, using a dedicated astro camera with a much smaller sensor, about 1/4 full frame, hence the tighter field (only 1200 pixels across). At this magnification things get very dicey for astrophotography. Everything has to be perfect, including the "seeing" (lack of atmospheric turbulence), for a succesful shoot.
Discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, M51 is a "grand design" spiral galaxy and is interacting with another galaxy - NGC 5195. M51 is actually devouring it :). It's apparent size is only 11.2 arc-minutes, roughly 1/6 of a degree. The light captured here is 23 million years old - if you think about it, from long before there were humans walking around! There are two small elongated light sources on the bottom left of the image. These are other galaxies, so far away that the light reaching us now is so old the dinosaurs were probably not even around then.
Thanks for looking.
Best,
Jose
http://jsuro.smugmug.com/photos/259799979_iFbsy-O.jpg