Galaxies behind M44 (Feb. 2020)

This is part of M44.  M44 is a cluster of stars just 610 light years away, and this is just a small part.  I've always found M44 intriguing through the camera: behind the cluster, peeking through its stars, are lots of little galaxies.  Some of these are far away.

The two bright galaxies sitting perpendicular to each others are PGC 24284 (horizontal) and PGC 2800946 (vertical).  PGC 2800946 is 16th magnitude, and about 220 million light years away.  At that distance, the galaxy is about 62,000 light years across.  PGC 24284 (horizontal) is about the same distance, maybe 5 million light years closer, and actually just a little larger than its companion.

Behind these two, though, other galaxies lurk.  Among them I see PGC 4172192, 1.8 billion light years away (mag. 18.18); PGC 4172171, 2.6 billion light years (mag. 18.44); PGC 4172165, 1 billion light years (Mag. 18.57); and PGC 3732412, 2 billion light years (blazing away at mag. 17.65).

Among these, I see a couple of galaxies for which I have no name.  I was unable to find them on any chart I have.

The dimmest stars in the image are less than mag. 19.  The brighest star in the image is TYC 1395-2047-1, magnitude 10.86.

This image is 7x720" with the CFF 290mm f/13.5 Classical Cassegrain reduced to f/8.1.  The camera was the SXVF-H9, and the subs were taken through an Astronomik CLS filter.  Galactic stats were taken from SkySafari.

Hubble's Variable Nebula, NGC 2261, Caldwell 46 (Feb. 2020)

I took up imaging partly because of light pollution. I just wanted to see more. So sometimes a nice picture is the goal, but sometimes I just want to make an observation. Here is one observation: Hubble's Variable Nebula. It's always a fascinating sight. It's a reflection nebula, and it changes from time to time as clouds get in the way of the star's reflected sunlight. It's a bright target, easily visible from the burbs. This image was 12x300" at a focal length of 2,350mm and a scale of 0.566 arsec/pixel. The telescope used was a CFF 230mm f/13.5 Classical Cassegrain.

NGC 3344 (February 2020)

This galaxy is only about 30 million light years away.  It is a grand spiral in shape but only about 65,000 light years across, about 2/3rds the size of our Milky Way.

There are several smaller galaxies—9 of them!—in the image along the right side of NGC 3344.  Most are around 770 million light years away, give or take thirty million.

The dimmest stars in the image are about magnitude 19.

On the night I took these frames, the seeing was not great.  At the resolution of the system I used, I could only shoot within 22 degrees or so of zenith.  This image was shot at a scale of 0.566 arcsec/pixel.  The image covers 12.8 x 9.72 arc minutes of sky.  I used 9x720" subframes taken with the SXVF-H9 camera at an effective focal length of 2,350mm.  The telescope used was the CFF 290 f/13.5 Classical Cassegrain.  The camera shot through an Astronomik CLS filter.