The above image is a crop of the area that shows the largest galaxies. Please click in one of the two links below to see the complete image at a bigger size.
Original size: 4004x2662
Bigger/Annotated size: 2328x1468
Closeup of the four "better looking" galaxies:
DATE
January 31st, 2009
PHOTO
Exposure time:
L: 5x8'
RGB: 3x3' each
Total: 67 minutes
Focal: 385mm, f/3.73
EQUIPMENT
Imaging scope: FSQ106 EDX with focal reducer
Camera: STL11000
Guiding camera: StarShoot Autoguider
Mount: Takahashi EM400
SITE & CONDITIONS
Henry Coe State Park, Morgan Hill, California
Seeing: Ok
Transparency: Ok
SOFTWARE
Calibration/Stacking: MaximDL
Processing: PixInsight & Photoshop
COMMENTS
Galaxy season is upon us, and as one would expect...
Last Saturday I went up to Coe to end up the RGBs of an image I've been trying to capture for weeks. Since I only needed a couple of hours for that, and I still had plenty of time to do something else (I started around 11pm and at 1am I was already finished), I decided to do a quick capture of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, as it was already well positioned in the sky. I had the FSQ with the focal reducer, and although it's not usual to take this area with such a big field, I decided to leave the reducer in the scope. Kepe in mind however that at almost 5 arcsecs per pixel, the resolution and details cannot be too impressive. The RGBs aren't perfectly aligned, something I need to look into.
