Gallery XXXII - Bright Galaxies in Leo
4/14/04
It was one of those days. It was clear, which has been a rare event of late. And, I wasn't working. I planned a quick trip to the Donald C. Martin Observatory to image the planets with the C14. When I got there I did a warm reboot of the Titan Mount (Losmondy), hit "go to" Saturn and the mount promptly pointed at the floor. I manually guided to Saturn and the mount did not track. After much detective work I discovered that the time, latitude and longitude had all been reset (power failure?). After resetting these and the tracking mode, I manually guided to Saturn but more technical difficulties arose. And the seeing was not that great ... so I broke out the Stellacam II and F3 focal reducer, did a cold restart with one star align on Regulus (alpha Leo), did a "go to" to Jupiter to focus on something bright and then began a search of bright galaxies in Leo.
Most objects were imaged for 30-40 (8.533 second long) frames. I tried one at 85 seconds (10 frames) but was disappointed with the results. below is the set up:
C14 reduced with a f3 reducer
Astrovid Stellacam II video camera
Astovideo to capture via an ImperX card
256 integrations (8.533 second frames)
30-40 frames per image (256-341 seconds or 4 min 16 sec - 5 min 41 sec)
gain at 50-60% (half way or two "tics" past)
gamma on high
Notes on Astovideo: I set the program to add frames with alignment (on a target region of interest) on the fly during image aquisition. I do not check the save as FITS or AVI boxes. that way I end up with one "summed" FIT image at the end of a run. This uses very little disk space. Frames/image is set to 1, # images (to add) is set to 10-60, time lapse delay is set to 8533 milliseconds for 256 integrations.
M 65
This was processed in FitsX, 30 frames, gain 50%, hi gamma, 256 frame integrations on chip.
This was processed in GIMP, otherwise the same as above. Looks like an "bared" spiral to me.
M 66
This was processed in FitsX, 40 frames, gain 60%, hi gamma, 256 frame integrations on chip.
The same in GIMP. Unsharp masking after levels and curves.
No unsharp masking. Less curves.
Compare to earlier images using the Stellacam Ex in a 10" f5.6 reflector reduced with a f 6 reducer
NGC 3826 (to complete the Leo Trio)
This was processed in FitsX, 30 frames, gain 50%, hi gamma, 256 frame integrations on chip.
In GIMP
It kind of looks like NGC 891. But then again it is an edge on spiral.
M 96
This was processed in FitsX, 30 frames, gain 50%, hi gamma, 256 frame integrations on chip.
In GIMP, is that a tiny galaxy at 12:00? What about at 9:00? Need to break out NSOG (thanks AAAP).
M 95
This was an experiment. it was late and I was tired. I shot this for only 10 frames and it was not enough.
This was processed in FitsX, 10 frames, gain 50%, hi gamma, 256 frame integrations on chip.
In GIMP, needs more time. 85.33 seconds is not enough.
And so, the night ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
If all spiral galaxies have a bar, does this explain why the sky is so intoxicating?
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