Thursday, July 19, 2007

M106 and Friends LRGB

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©2007 Richard Murray

Full Size Image

Techno Stuff: 6/8/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Luminance IR 80 minutes total with 8 min subs, binning 1x1, Red 20 minutes with 5 minute subs - Blue 30 minutes with 6 minute subs Binning 2x2, Synthetic Green, Autoguided with Atk-2HS and Guidedog from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: To get all the details of M106's core please look at the full size image. I did the best I could on the color. I started out with the whole thing looking yellowish green so I switched to Lab Color in Photoshop and the color processing went a lot smoother.

The large galaxy is M106 and the edge on smaller galaxy right next to it on the left is NGC4248. The two galaxies next to that are NGC4231 and NGC4232. There appears to be a faint light bridge between them so they may be interacting. The larger edge on galaxy at bottom right is NGC4217 and to the right of it is NGC4226. I'm pretty sure the faint galaxy just below M106 is UGC7356.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Sh2-171 Emission Nebula

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©2007 Richard Murray

Full Size Image

Techno Stuff: 7/13/07 ATK-16hr, Megrez 80mm APO at F/6, mounted on LX90 8" SCT, Ha 6nm 140 minutes total with 20 min subs, binning 1x1, Autoguided with CCD Labs Q-Guide and PHDGuide from LX90, Darks Applied, CCDStack, Photoshop CS2, PixInsight

Notes: This is the second portion of Sh2-171, the first being the Calf Head Nebula. Not as much structure as the Calf Head but still an interesting nebula.