M65 (NGC3623) (Feb. 25, 2012)

M65 is estimated to be 29,000,000 to 52,000,000 light years away.  We find it in Leo.  The galaxy appears near two other galaxies (M66 & NGC 3628) that possibly (likely?) have had some gravitational interaction, but M65 does not appear to be disturbed by them (see here).  Maybe the nearness is more apparent than real.

This image was cut short because my secondary dew'd up.  I actually included a few frames from after the start of dewing.  The dew destroyed star shapes and lessened contrast and depth.  It's clearly a problem I will have to address.  This is the first session in which dew has been a problem, of about ten or twelve with this scope over the last year.

Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian and Baader RCC1
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9, 13x10'
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

Orion 6" f/5 Imaging Newtonian, Set Up for Imaging

Here is the 6" after a night of imaging.

M78, Leo I, and Hickson 44 (the NGC 3190 group)

On the night of January 29, I set up the 6" f/5 newt with the Astro Tech Coma Corrector and the SXVF-H9.  I wanted a shot of Leo I.  But I set up early, and Leo I was not up yet.  M78 was positioned just right, so I shot a couple of hours.  Leo I came up, and I began to see wispy clouds.  Oh, bother.  I went ahead, anyway.  After a couple of hours, the scope needed a meridian flip. I flipped over and centered Leo I and found an annoying reflection in the the center of the image.  It was Regulus, I'm betting, but I have no idea where the reflection was coming from within the telescope.  I obviously have some study to do.  Anyway, there was no way to avoid the reflection that night, so I just moved to another target, one of my favorite galaxy clusters, Hickson 44.  Because of all the moving around, I was only able to get about half the time on each object that I would like, and truthfully M78 needs about ten more hours and a darker sky.  Anyway, here are the three images nonetheless, processed, cropped, and otherwise fixed for best presentation.  No color here; the H9 is a monochrome and I was shooting for luminance, only.  Also, please note that the wispy clouds stayed with me for the rest of the night.

 M78, 17x7', a reflection nebula teaming with new stars about 1300 to 1600 light years distant.

Leo I, 14x7', a small galaxy about 800,000 light years away.  The bright star to the left (south) of the galaxy's location is Regulus.

Hickson 44, 22x7', a galaxy cluster 72 to 111 million light years away.

Telescope: Orion 6" f/5 Imaging Newtonian with GSO Coma Corrector (effectively at f/5.5)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar, SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX