a couple of galaxies,Bode's galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy

[moonshinegnomie]

taking advantage of the cold clear nights to shoot some galaxies.

these are bodes galaxy and the cigar galaxy, M81 and M82. located in the same constellation as the big dipper (ursa major) these galaxies are about 12 million ligt years away. the galaxies are close enough to each other that they are interacting leading to a lot of star formation.

5 hours of exposure last night in my backyard

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You keep knocking these photos out of the park, my dear moonshinegnomie!

This is great.

And from your back yard, even!

[Permanut]

2. Amazing!

Maybe just a quick note about your equipment and how you made this happen?

[moonshinegnomie]

3. equipment and process

astrotech ed 72ii telescope (a small cheap scope)
zwo am5 mount (the mount is actually the most imporant)
zwo 30mm guide scope plus a zwo 120mm guide camera (reduces tracking errors fro the scope)
asair plus. (a small controller that handles the actual shooting)
sony a6000 camera
baader moon and skyglow filter to reduce light pollution especially on galaxys and other broadband targets (not nebulas)

i set teh asair to take a series of exposure with the parameters i choose. i this case i use 60 5 minute exposures at iso 800
then i take a series of calibration frames called flats and dark to help reduce noise

I take teh whole set of photos and use a piece of software called pixinsight to stack the individual exposures together. this reduces noise when i begun whats called stretching which basically brings the objects out from the background since before stretching the photo looks black even though the data is there

then i use photoshop for final edits

[2naSalit]

4. Amazing!

And thank you!