Shooting Stars

Spring 2012 - Galaxies:

Our sun is so big you could fit almost 1 million earths in it. It’s an average sized star and it’s only one of 200 billion stars in the Milk Way Galaxy. So… to start wrapping my brain around the fact that other galaxies exist (maybe 400 billion more) is mind blowing. Actually observing and imaging those galaxies… Unreal!!!

This is the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 located under the handle of the Big Dipper estimated to be 37 million light years away. It is home to roughly 100 billion suns (about half as many as our home galaxy , The Milky Way). You can also see neighboring galaxy NGC5195.

I shot 140 - 5.25minute exposures over two nights early last week… I manually selected only 50 of the clearest shots, stacked them and processed colour levels, brightness, contrast and saturation in Gimp.  (Total exposure time is 4 hours, 23 minutes)

Side note: I lost so many of my original shots because part way through the second night the wires hanging from my small guiding scope came in contact with my telescopes focusing knob – As the mount rotated (or tracked) the focuser was turned ever so slightly by the wires, thus defocusing my scope!!! Another hard lesson learned!

The first time I ever observed M51 visually was three years ago, at our club observatory, with our 16” Newtonian Reflector Telescope.

 

M104

I set up at our club observatory and shot M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.

It is a little edge-on galaxy in Virgo and is recognized right away in the eyepiece. I believe it's core is one of the biggest estimated black holes!

I started firing shots by 10pm and was all packed up by 2:30am so I could be chipper at work the next day. In that time I shot 33 – 4minute frames and stacked them for a total exposure of 2 hours, 12 minutes.

The most exciting part of the night was the discovery of a mom raccoon and her four little nursing pups (only days old and furless) who have taken up residence in our main observatory building. We only entered the building to sign in-and-out so we could leave her alone. Her pups squeaked and chirped  the hole time we were there, probably fighting over the best milk supply! There was some satisfaction in knowing this little family was safe from the howling coyotes we were also hearing: