Finally, a clear night of imaging! This is galaxy M95, between 29,000,000 and 42,000,000 light years from us, found in the constellation Leo. The bright star just to the left of the nucleus is a supernova that was discovered March 16, 2012, and has been observed by professionals all this last week.
Amateur images like mine have been popping up all over the internet. It's just an opportune time. M95 reaches meridian around midnight this week, and that makes it ideal for folks like me to aim a telescope at it. I tried to get an image of M95 last year on March 15. It just happened that this week there was also a supernova exploding in the galaxy! How cool is that?
Final note: The galaxy on the far left of the large image is PGC 31984.
Telescope: Orion 10" f/4.7 Newtonian and Baader RCC1
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9, 56x4'
Filter: IDAS-LPS2
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX
2 comments:
Nice image! I imaged M95 last night, too. It's not nearly as nice as yours, though. :o)
No, I saw yours; it's great, especially the wide field! Hey everyone, check out Rory's wide field M95 at Eastex Astronomy, link in the list at right.
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