Observation Log - June 4, 2000 - Tinton Falls, NJ

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M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici, magnitude 8.4, dimensions 11'.0 x 7'.8, along with the companion galaxy, NGC 5195, magnitude 9.3, dimensions 5'.4 x 4'.3. These two galaxies are at a distance of 15 million light years. This LRGB photo is yet another re-imaging of this object. This effort used the f/6.3 focal reducer and the Homeyer color filter wheel, giving an effective focal ratio of f/4. This is a color composite of 56 exposures: 25 white images for 54 minutes, 8 red images for 26 minutes, 11 green images for 22 minutes, and 12 blue images for 24 minutes. Prior to imaging, I took new flats on the evening twilight sky, along with dark frames for the flats, and then dark frames later for the regular images. The final image was created and processed with dark frame subtraction, flat field, then compositing separately for each channel. The Luminance channel was then processed with Digital Development (FFT, low-pass, mild.) The four resulting images were color combined, and the alignment was adjusted at the sub-pixel level by hand. Then the color balance was adjusted, along with saturation and a color blend. The image was finished with a contrast stretch. Images (besides the flats) were taken between 10:15 p.m. and 1:19 a.m. from my front lawn in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.

M56, a globular cluster in Lyra, magnitude 8.4, diameter 7', distance 31,000 light years. This reimaging is an LRGB composite created from a 28-minute luminance channel, a 20-minute red channel, an 18-minute green channel, and a 22-minute blue channel. All images were taken between 02:12 a.m. and 04:29 a.m. the morning of June 4th. Equipment was the 10" Meade LX200 with an f/6.3 focal reducer producing a focal ratio of f/4, and the Homeyer color filter wheel. Processing included dark frame subtraction, flat frames, then compositing the channels individually using MaxIm. The the four images were color combined, then a Digital Development filter (kernel low-pass), color balanced and smoothed, and finally a contrast stretch. Here is another rendition of the same image, with a little higher contrast stretch.