Mark's Astrophotography

Galaxies

M31

M31 - The great Andromeda Galaxy. Friday Oct. 31, 2008 - A good contingent of RAC members went to the Mid-Atlantic Star Party near Robbins NC. The skies are pretty dark, and we had a run of clear but cold weather this year. I attended only one night, and was able to take this photo with my unmodified Canon 350D DSLR attached to my Genesis refractor. I was guiding with my SBIG ST-402 on the Stellarvue 80 mm refractor. I used Deep Sky Stacker to combine 12 x 180 second jpg exposures. Five dark frames were used. The output tiff file was further processed in Photoshop CS2.

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NGC 1365

NGC 1365 in Fornax. Taken on Sept. 30 and Oct. 13, 2009 using a remote observatory in Australia. I used a Lightbuckets telescope remotely to capture this data. The telescope was a 24inch RC and the camera was an Apogee Alta U16m. This remote observatory is now shutdown. This is an LRGB photo with L=8x5min, R,G,B=4x5min each. The observatory was never able to gather all the scheduled observing runs, so I processed what data was taken. MaximDL was used to combine each color channel, then PixInsight was used to make the combined LRGB image. Some touchups were made with Photoshop CC.

Click on the image to see a larger version in a new window.

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Deerlick Group and Stephan's Quintet, Oct. 24, 2022

The Deerlick group of galaxies including NGC 7331 (upper left) and Stephan's Quintet of galaxies (lower right). There are lots of other small galaxies scattered over the frame. I need more sub-exposures but that will have to wait until later. I did not use any light pollution filters this time so 120 seconds is about as long as I can go at f/5 from my light polluted home.

Click on the image for a larger view in a new window.

Details:
Location: Front yard Cary, NC
Camera: ASI294mc-Pro
Exposure: 27 x 120s gain 150
Filter: UV/IR
Scope: Televue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor
Mount: iOptron GEM-45
Guider: Orion 60mm finder/guider
Capture software: ZWO ASIair Plus
Guiding software: ZWO ASIair Plus
Calibration frames: darks, flats, flat-dark
Processing software: Pixinsight, Photoshop CC, Topaz AI
Weather conditions: Very clear and no haze
Notes: The photo displayed is a crop of the original frame.

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Spiral Galaxy M94 in Canes Venatici, June 18, 2022

M94 - The Croc's Eye Galaxy taken over two nights about a month apart. Exposure time was nearly 2.5 hours. Note the faint outer halo around the galaxy.

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Details:
Location: Front yard Cary, NC
Camera: ASI294MC-Pro
Exposure: 51 x 90s and 58 x 60s gain 150
Filter: Optolong L-Pro (5/28) and Astronomik CLS (6/18)
Scope: Televue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor
Mount: iOptron GEM-45
Guider: 60mm Orion finder/guider
Capture software: APT and NINA 2.0
Guiding software: PHD
Calibration frames: darks, flats, flat-dark
Processing software: Pixinsight, Photoshop CC, and Topaz Denoise AI
Weather conditions: Clear with low humidity. Mild temperatures. Great for June!

Notes: The first sequence of shots was taken on May 28, 2022. At the time, I felt these were over exposed. The second set was taken on June 18, 2022. The 60s exposures here seemed proper. The image was cropped.

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The Leo Triplet of Galaxies, April 3, 2022

The Leo Triplet: M65 (lower right), M66 (lower left), and NGC 3628 aka the Hamburger Galaxy (top). I was very pleased with the detail I got in M65 and especially M66. Several other faint galaxies are visible especially in the larger view.

Click on the image for a larger view in a new window.

Details:
Location: Front yard Cary, NC
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Exposure: 45 x 2 minutes gain 150
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
Scope: Televue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor
Mount: iOptron GEM-45
Guider: 60mm Orion finder/guider with ASI120mm-s camera
Capture software: APT
Guiding software: PHD2
Calibration frames: 13 flats and 13 darks
Processing software: PixInsight, Photoshop CC, and Gradient xTerminator
Weather conditions: Very cool but steady and dry.

Notes: The image was cropped. Focused with a Batinov mask.

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NGC3718 in Ursa Major - May 7, 2021

Galaxies NGC 3718 (center), NGC 3729 (upper left), and Hickson 56 a group of 5 small galaxies (lower center). The image has been cropped to 66% of the original frame.

Location: Cary, NC in my front yard
Camera: ASI294MC-pro gain:150
Exposures: 41 x 2 minutes (1 hr. 22 min.)
Filter: none
Scope: Celestron Edge HD 800 (C-8) at f/7 1400mm fl
Mount: iOptron GEM-45
Guider: Orion 60mm finder with ASI-120mm camera
Capture software: APT
Guiding software: PHD2
Processing software: Pixinsight and Photoshop

Notes: Conditions were very moist after rain earlier that day. I also got a late start due to some kind of pointing error with the mount. This was the first time using the Edge HD 800 in over a year.

Pixinsight was used for data reduction, align, stack, crop, Photometric CC, and convert to tiff. Photoshop CC was for GradXterminator, noise reduction, color balance, curves, and convert to jpg.

For a larger view in a new window, click on the image.

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M106 in Canes Venatici April 2, 2021

Barred spiral galaxy M106 magnitude 8.3. There are four other smaller galaxies in the field: NGC 4346 (lower left), NGC 4248 (next to M106 upper right), NGC 4220 (upper right), and NGC 4217 (lower right). The photo also has numerious tiny galaxies faintly visible. Click here to see a mono version of this galaxy I shot 15 years earlier with the same telescope and my SBIG ST-402me CCD camera.

Location: Cary, NC in my front yard
Camera: ASI-294MC-pro gain:120 (unity)
Exposures: 1.5 hr - 45 x 2 min
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Scope: Televue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor
Mount: iOptron GEM-45
Guider: Orion 60mm finder with ASI-120mm camera
Capture software: APT
Guiding software: PHD2
Processing software: Pixinsight and Photoshop
Notes: Pixinsight was used for data reduction, align, stack, crop, ABE, color correct, and convert to tiff.
Photoshop CC was used for gradient removal (GradientXTerminator), noise reduction, color adjustments, curves, and convert to jpg.

For a larger view in a new window, click on the image.

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M101 - June 13, 2020

M101 - a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major photographed from home in Cary, NC. This photo is a combination of 15 x 2 minute exposures. It was taken through my 4" Genesis refractor and my ZWO ASI 294mc-pro camera guided by a 60mm finder scope with an ASI120mm camera. An Astronomic CLS filter was used. The mount used was my iOptron GEM-45. I used APT for the image capture and PHD2 for guiding. PixInsight was used to reduce, combine, and create a TIFF file for import to Photoshop. I also used the Photoshop GradientXTerminator plug-in.

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M95, M96, and M105 galaxies in Leo - May 9, 2020

M95 is the bright barred spiral galaxy at the lower right. M96 is the spiral galaxy to its left at lower center. M105 is the elliptical galaxy at the top left along with spiral galaxies NGC 3384 and NGC 3389.

The image was captured from my front driveway in Cary, NC. The nearly full moon was rising in the east as this sequence was started. The sky was clear with very cool temperatures in the low 40s. The final photo was made up from 15 x 45 second and 15 x 60 second subframes for a total exposure duration of just over 26 minutes. The final photo was cropped a little from the full frame view. I was using my ZWO ASI294mc-cool camera at unity gain. The ASI294 was attached to my TeleVue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor. The mount used was an iOptron GEM-45. I was guiding with an Orion 60mm finder with an attached ASI120mm guide camera. I used APT for image capture and PHD2 for guiding of the 60s subs. PixInsight was used for image calibration, stretch, DBE, noise reduction, and crop. Photoshop 2020 with GradientXTerminator was used to create the final image.

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Markarian's Chain of Galaxies in Virgo - April 27, 2020

Markarian's Chain includes several bright Messier elliptical galaxies including (moving from right to left then down) - M84, M86, and M87 near the bottom edge. The field of view is approximately 1.5 degrees high x 2 degrees wide. There was a 15% crescent moon 20 degrees up in the western sky at start of the exposures.

This was my first attempt at guided astrophography with my new iOptron GEM45. I managed to get 38x60s images while Virgo was getting pretty close to the meridian on the east side. I was using my ZWO ASI294mc-cool camera. The gain was mistakenly set at 200! The ASI294 was attached to my TeleVue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor. I was guiding with an Orion 60mm finder with an attached ASI120mm guide camera. I used APT for image capture, PHD2 for guiding, PixInsight for image reduction and initial stretch, and then Photoshop 2020 with GradientXTerminator for the final image.

With all the light pollution from my house in Cary, I was amazed I got a decent image. GradientXTerminator made a huge difference.

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M63 galaxy in Canes Venatici - May 28, 2019

M63 is one of the most beautiful spiral galaxies in the northern sky. Note the dark band covering part of the spiral arms on the bottom left side of the galaxy. The skies tonight were not perfectly clear, but were better than average for this time of year in NC. Daytime temperatures reached 95 today making the evening very warm - my camera was only cooling down to -5 degrees C. Partly cloudy skies shut me down by 1 am.

This is my second attempt at using the ASI294MC Pro camera attached to my Celestron HD 800 (C-8) working at f/7. 32 x 90 seconds (48 minutes total) images at unity gain were taken from my front yard in Cary. The image is cropped from full frame. This is an updated version of the photo originally posted here. Additional frames were added to the stack and some noise reduction was performed. The Losmandy G-11 was guided by an Orion 9 x 60 finder guider with an attached ASI 120mm-s guide camera. I am still having guiding troubles at this focal length (1400mm). The images were captured with Maxim DL, calibrated, stacked, and stretched with PixInsight, and final touchups were done with Photoshop CC.

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M59 and M60 galaxies in Virgo - May 21, 2019

M59 is on the right with M60 and close companion NGC4647 on the left. NGC4667 is at lower center. There are lots of fainter galaxies scattered around. This is my "second light" photo with my new ASI-294MC Pro camera, but this time I used my Celestron Edge HD 800 at f/7 (1400 mm focal length). Since it was very windy and the scope was shaking, I had very low expectations for this shot. The wind shut me down completely by 11:15 pm. My stars are not round, but they don't look terrible at this scale. I only managed 20 x 90 seconds of images at unity gain all taken from my front yard in Cary. The image is slightly cropped from full frame. The Losmandy G-11 was used with the shots guided by an Orion 9 x 60 finder guider with an attached ASI 120mm-s guide camera. The images were captured with Maxim DL, calibrated, stacked, and stretched with PixInsight, and final touchups were done with Photoshop CC.

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Galaxy NGC7479 - Oct. 29, 2018

Barred spiral galxay NGC-7479 in Pegasus - magnitude 10.9, size 4' x 3.1'. North is to the left. This galaxy had a supernova in it 9 years ago - see this link for my animation taken back then.

Telescope: Celestron Edge HD800 with f/7 reducer (1400mm). Mount: Losmandy G-11 unguided. Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-c. Location: My front yard in Cary, NC. Conditions: The moon was up during the second half of image capture session. There were lots of street lights and porch lights lighting up my area. Since I was not guiding and my polar alignment was off a bit, I used the best 37 of the 40 subframes captured based on the eccentricity of the stars so that worked out to be 37 x 60 second lights, 13 each of darks, flats, and flat-darks all shot at unity gain. This is a crop of the central 1/2 of the full frame. Images were captured using MaximDL 5. Data reduction and stacking was done with PixInsight. The final image was made with Photoshop - levels and curves, GradientXTerminator, noise reduction, and convert to jpg.

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Galaxy NGC891 - Nov. 10, 2018

Edge-on spiral galxay NGC-891 in Andromeda - magnitude 10.1, size 11.7' x 1.6'. North is to the top.

Telescope: Celestron Edge HD800 with f/7 reducer (1400mm). Mount: Losmandy G-11 guided with an 80mm Brandon refractor and ATIK 16-IC. Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-c. Location: My front yard in Cary, NC. Conditions: Clear and cold with temps around 40. Lots of ambient light.

Exposure: 21 x 90 second lights, 13 each of darks, flats, and flat-darks all shot at unity gain. This is a slight crop of the full frame. Images were captured using MaximDL 5. Data reduction and sigma-clip combination was also done with MaximDL. The final image was made with Photoshop CS2 - levels and curves, GradientXTerminator, noise reduction, and convert to jpg. ImagesPlus was used for a slight sharpening of the image.

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Edge on Spiral Galaxy M104 - April 17, 2018

M104 is a large edge on spiral galaxy in southern Virgo. It never gets very high in the sky from my latitude. The seeing was only fair this night and I was having guiding difficulties. This image was taken from Cary, NC using my Celestron Edge HD 800 8" telescope with a 0.7x telecompressor making the system 1400mm at f/7. I was using a new (to me) ZWO ASI1600mm-c camera at unity gain. The scope was guided with an 80mm Brandon refractor and ATIK 16IC. The mount used was a Losmandy G-11 non-goto. The image is made from the best 27 of 30 1 minute exposures. I was afraid using longer exposures due to the light pollution in my neighborhood. I used MaximDL to capture the image data. I took 13 darks, 13 flats, and 13 flat-darks for image calibration. The image data was processed using Pixinsight and cropped by 10%.

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Face on Spiral Galaxy M88 - April 17, 2018

M88 is a pretty face on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. This image was taken from Cary, NC using my Celestron Edge HD 800 8" telescope with a 0.7x telecompressor making the system 1400mm at f/7. I was using a new (to me) ZWO ASI1600mm-c camera at unity gain. This was my first non-test image using this camera. The scope was guided with an 80mm Brandon refractor and ATIK 16IC. The mount used was a Losmandy G-11 non-goto. The image is made from 34 x 1 minute exposures. Several exposures had to be discarded due to guiding problems. I used MaximDL to capture the image data. I took 13 darks, 13 flats, and 13 flat-darks for image calibration. The image data was processed using PixInsight with a few final tweeks in Photoshop CS.

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M100, NGC4312, and lots of other galaxies - May 26, 2017

This is the area around spiral galaxy M100 in Virgo. Lots of galaxies are present, the brightest being edge on spiral NGC4312 to the lower left. About 10 moderately faint galaxies are in the field of view - the faintest of which is magnitude 16.2. North is to the right of the image.

This image slightly cropped is a combination of the best 18 of 25 two and a half minute exposures taken with my homemade 8" f/6.2 reflector. The data was acquired at our Bigwoods site on a clear night with temps in the mid to low 60s. My Losmandy G-11 (non-Gemini) was overtaxed with the weight of this scope but managed to get some useful images. I was guiding with my Orion 60mm finder/guider with an attached ATIK 16IC camera. I was using my Canon Rebel XTi at ISO 1600. Images were captured with BackyardEOS and reduced and stretched in ImagesPlus. All other image processing was done with Photoshop CS2.

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M58, M59, and M60 - May 14, 2017

M58, M59, M60 and lots of other galaxies in Virgo. Mouse over the image to get an annotated view showing the galaxy designations. There are 13 brighter galaxies annotated and quite a few much fainter galaxies that are not. The faintest galaxies are close to 12th magnitude. This image was taken at Bigwoods on a mostly clear and breezy spring night with temperatures in the upper 60s. Backyard EOS was used to capture 30 x 1 minute unguided exposures using my mofified Canon XTi at ISO 1600. I used 11 flats and 13 darks and 13 bias frames. The images were combined and stretched using ImagesPlus and then taken to Photoshop CS2 for final processing. I used my Televue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor, an old Canon XTi, and my Losmandy G-11 mount.

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Spiral Galaxy NGC-4216 - May 11, 2016

Spiral galaxy NGC-4216 (magnitude 10.9) in Virgo was taken from my light polluted driveway in Cary, NC on May 11, 2016. Also seen are edge on spirals NGC-4206 (mag. 12.0) and NGC-4222 (mag. 13.9). Five or six other small galaxies are also faintly visible. The photo was taken with my f/5 Genesis refractor and my SBIG ST-402 CCD camera mounted on my Losmandy G-11. The photo is luminance only comprising of 20x1 minute exposures. The data was captured using MaximDL 5. In March 2020, the original data was reprossed in PixInsight using WBPP. From PI, the data was taken to Photoshop CC for levels and curves, GradientXterminator, and Topaz Denoise AI for noise reduction and sharpening. The image was also enlarged to 125% of the original.

The weather had been cloudy for the dark of the moon period in May, so in despiration I stepped outside just before bed to check the conditions and I saw stars! Under less than ideal conditions - moonlight and slightly humid and hazy conditions I set up my scope. The outside temperature was around 68 degrees F, so I stayed out for three hours in shorts and a T-shirt just enjoying the night sky. The data capture started just before midnight and some clouds rolled in at around 12:30 and did not completely go away.

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NGC 4725 and NGC 4712 from the suburbs - Mar. 16, 2016

NGC 4725 and NGC 4712 in Coma Berenices captured March 16, 2016. I wanted to try another deep sky object from the suburbs, so I arose early and set up my home-built 8" f/6 Newtonian reflector on my Losmandy G-11 mount in the front yard. I attached my SBIG ST-402 CCD camera and my guide scope combo which is an Orion 60mm finder with an ATIK 16IC.

My neighbors lights were on all night again, so I had to deal with that direct light coming towards me as well as our new bright LED streetlights. The skies were clear with low humidity and the temperature was a nice 60 degrees. Tree pollen was pretty bad.

I combined the best 42 of 53 exposures of 90 seconds in length for a total of 63 minutes exposure time. MaximDL was used to calibrate and sigma combine the images. I then cropped out the bad edges and did a gradient removal and saved the result as a TIFF file. I took that file into ImagesPlus and did a DDP stretch followed by a little star size reduction. From there, I took the image into Photoshop CS2 for noise reduction, galaxy sharpening, a contrast boost, and finally a slight enlargement of the image.

When I originally took my calibration frames, I found that my flat-fielding box was not working so I had to create flats a couple of days later after a repair to the light box. Flat field artifacts can be seen in the image due to flat problems. I did use proper darks and bias frames.

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M95 from the suburbs - Feb. 29, 2016

M95 - Barred spiral galaxy in Leo. I was inspired by Michael Fulbright's recent efforts on deep sky imaging from the bright suburbs. So, I decided to see how bad things are from my front yard in Cary among all the streetlights. At the end of a session on 2/29/2016, I decided to try M95 and see how it would turn out.

Using my 4" f/5 TeleVue Genesis, my SBIG ST-402 CCD camera, and my Losmandy G-11 mount, I tried some one minute subs. The sky brightness didn't seem overwhelming, so I shot a total of 20 to process. I took matching darks and flats all captured with MaximDL. Since the subs were only one minute long, I did not guide because my polar alignment was pretty good. I did the data reduction in Maxim, then moved the output to Photoshop CS2 as a tiff image. There I did multiple iterations of levels and curves until I had a reasonable view of the galaxy. I used GradientXtermiator to get rid of the bad gradient. I then did a little sharpening and star size reduction with ImagesPlus and went back to Photoshop for some final touch up which included noise removal.

I think this turned out pretty well accounting for the fairly short total exposure time. I think if I had gone for an hour of total exposure it would have been a pretty decent photo.

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NGC 253 - Dec. 14, 2014

Galaxy NGC-253 in Sculptor taken on Dec. 14, 2014. It was a cold clear night at Bigwoods with temperatures around 27 degrees F. These images were captured using the TeleVue Genesis 4" f/5 refractor guided by a Orion 60mm finder/guider. 16 x 2 minutes sub-exposures were taken with my Canon XTi DSLR. The data was captured using Backyard EOS then combined and processed with PixInsight in Jan. 2020. Some touch-ups were done with Photoshop CC.

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M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy - Oct. 1, 2013

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy. This photo was taken at Staunton River Park in Virginia on Oct. 1, 2013. Using the Genesis and the Canon XTi, this was an hour's worth of 3 minute exposures processed in ImagesPlus.

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M84 and M86 area - April 12, 2013

April 12, 2013 at Bigwoods. It is just short of one hour of luminance only exposure using my Televue Genesis 4” refractor and my SBIG ST-402 camera. The shot was guided by a 600mm camera lens attached to my ATIK 16IC camera. North is to the left in this view. M84 is the elliptical galaxy at the top and M86 is the larger elliptical galaxy near the bottom. Also seen are edge on galaxies NGC4402 on the left and NGC4388 on the right. NGC4413 is at the lower right. There are numerous faint galaxies scattered around the photo.

As usual, I had intended to shoot color to go with the luminance but high clouds started rolling into the last couple of frames and I had to stop. The pollen was extremely heavy getting on all my equipment and me. In addition, the seeing was not particularly good.

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NGC 4565 - June 30, 2011

Edge on galaxy NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices taken on Thursday evening June 30, 2011. 31 x 1 min exposures were taken with my homemade 8 inch f/6 Newtonian telescope and my SBIG ST0402me camera on my Losmandy G-11 mount. The image was acquired with Maxim DL. In April 2022, I reprocessed the original data with PixInsight. Finishing touches were done with Photoshop CC and Topaz Denoise AI. The original image was cropped slightly, but then enlarged to 125%. As is usually the case for me, I ran out of time before taking any color data.

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56 year animation of M51 area

This two frame animation shows the motion of stars in the Milky Way in the area of M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy over a 54 year period.

I got the idea for this sequence from a similar photo I saw on the Internet recently. I decided to try one myself using my own photo. The first image was taken in April, 1956 with the 48" Schmidt telescope on Palomar Mtn. It is part of the STSci Deep Sky Survey. I took the second image in July 2010 with my 8" f/6 Newtonian telescope and ST-402 CCD camera. I manipulated each image by aligning them and then trying to equalize them somewhat.

I put tic marks on most of the brighter stars with the largest proper motion. It is amazing to me the different directions the stars are moving. There also seems to be a few variable stars showing different brightness levels.

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M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy July 3, 2010

M51 - The Whirpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici on July 3, 2010 at Bigwoods. This is a combination of 26 individual frames some at 2 minutes and some at 1 minute for a total of 39 minutes. DDP was used to bring out the details in the galaxy. I again had tracking problems, so I used Photoshop to bring the stars back into round.

We had beautiful summer weather since a cold front came through and cleared the atmosphere out nicely. Temperatures were in the low to mid 60s. I used my homemade 8 inch f/6 Newtonian and my SBIG ST-402 to create the image. I was guiding piggyback with my ATIK 16IC connected to my 80mm f/6.25 Brandon refractor. I used MaximDL 5 for image acquisition and guiding. The mount used was my 10 year old Losmandy G-11 (non-Gemini). This is the first image through my equipment in quite some time. I have been working out the kinks in the guiding issues I have with my new 8" scope. I still have some work to do!

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M74 - Dec. 25, 2008

M74 - a spiral galaxy in Pisces. The original data for this image was taken on Dec. 25, 2008 and reprocessed in 2017. The telescope used was the Genesis 4" f/5 on the Losmandy G-11 mount. The LRGB composit was made from 30 minutes of luminance binned 1x1, red and green at 5x3 minutes each binned 2x2, and blue 6x3 minutes binned 2x2. Data was captured, reduced, and combined with MaximDL 5, then finished up in ImagesPlus and Photoshop CS2.

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NGC 2903 - April 8, 2007

NGC-2903 April 8, 2007 - This is a nice little barred spiral galaxy in Leo that Bill Webster showed me a couple of years ago. This LRGB image was made up of 21 minutes of luminance, 15 minutes each of red and green, and 18 minutes of blue for a total of 69 minutes of exposure time. Above the spiral galaxy there is a small galaxy UGC-5086 at magnitude 16. Although we had had some nice spring weather a few days before, it seemed like winter again with temperatures in the lower 30s. The skies were clear. I was using the 4 inch Genesis and the ST-402ME to image and the Stellarvue 80mm and ST-4 to guide. This old data was reprocessed in PixInsight and Photoshop CC in Aug. 2020 and presented here.

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M106 - May 28, 2006

M106 and six fainter friends - May 28, 2006. The bright galaxy to the center left is M106, a barred spiral in Canes Venatici. Notice the faint spiral arms starting to show outside the brigher nucleus area. Directly below M106 is the very faint irregular galaxy PGC 39615. It is shining at magnitude 15.8 and it's size is 0.7' x 0.8'. The lenticular looking galaxy to the upper right of M106 is NGC 4248. It is listed as a spiral galaxy magnitude 12.4 and size 2.4' x 1.1'. To it's right and slightly higher are two more small faint galaxies, NGC 4232 at magnitude 13.7 and immediately above it is NGC 4231 at magnitude 13.6. Near the bottom right corner of the photo is NGC 4217, a very nice edge on spiral galaxy. It's size is 5.2' x 1.5 and it's magnitude is 11.3. Finally, to the lower left of NGC 4217 is NGC 4226 at magnitude 14.5. You can start to see some spiral structure to it also. This image is 10 x 3 minutes (30 minutes total). DDP was used to bring out the structure in the bright galaxy. I also used GradientXTerminator to get rid of the gradients and smooth the sky background.

These images were taken Sunday evening May 28, 2006 at our Bigwoods site. Quite a few other observers joined my on this holiday evening. As always, I was using the ST-402ME and the Genesis 4" f/5 refractor to image and the Stellarvue 80/9D and the ST-4 to guide. This was a warm night, and the transparency was not very good. The summer observing season has started in North Carolina!

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