Observation Log - December 4, 2000

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

[NOTE: Made a lot of mistakes tonight. It was very cold, but the seeing was quite good. Had the telescope frosted over before midnight because I plugged the dew heater into the wrong receptical on the controller box. Used the hair dryer to clear it, then refocused and started shooting again. Then I left the three-hole mask on during a set of exposures and had to throw them away. Battery ran out by about 3:00 am and I got more frost. Swiftched to another battery for the last two objects, but got a little frost buildup anyway. Temperature reached 19 degrees. Still a good session. -GW]

IC239, a galaxy in Andromeda, magnitude 11.1, dimensions 4'.6 x 4'.3, surface brightness is 15.1 mags/sq arcmin, and the distance is 44 million light years. The frames were shot between 9:41 and 10:58 p.m. the evening of December 3rd. This composite was made from 35 exposures for a total integration time of 70 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat- darks, then aligned and composited. Then I moved the image into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (Kernel, low-pass) and an unsharp mask (FFT, low- pass, hard). I finished with a contrast stretch. I had to leave the background level quite high on this object, as it is quite faint and hard to record.

NGC2419, a globular cluster in Lynx, magnitude 10.4, diameter 4'.1. Distance on this object is given as 300,000 light years, putting it farther away than the Magellanic Clouds! What's a globular cluster doing out there? The frames were shot between 12:04 and 12:40 am the morning of December 4th. This composite was made from 17 exposures for a total integration time of 34 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. Then I moved the image into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild) and an unsharp mask (FFT, low-pass, hard). I finished with a contrast stretch.

NGC2500, a galaxy in Lynx, magnitude 11.6, dimensions 2'.8 x 2'.8, surface brightness is 14.4 mag/sq arcmin. Distance on this object is given as 24 million light years. Images were taken between 12:55 and 2:59 am the morning of December 4th. This composite was made from 44 exposures for a total integration time of 88 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. Then I moved the image into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild) and finally a contrast stretch.

M95, a barred spiral galaxy in Leo, magnitude 9.7, dimensions are 7'.4 x 5'.0, distance is 26.5 million light years. Images were taken between 3:12 and 4:30 am the morning of December 4th. This composite was made from 34 exposures for a total integration time of 68 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. I also applied a mild unsharp mask. Then I moved the image into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, mild) and finally a contrast stretch. This is my second effort at M95. My previous image was taken back on 01/08/00, a 6-minute exposure!

M96, a spiral galaxy in Leo, magnitude 9.2, dimensions are 7'.6 x 5'.2, distance is 26.5 million light years. Images were taken between 4:37 and 6:01 am the morning of December 4th. This composite was made from 39 exposures for a total integration time of 78 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. I also applied a mild unsharp mask. Then I moved the image into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, hard) and finally a contrast stretch. This is my second effort at M96. My previous image was taken back on 01/08/00, a 6-minute exposure! Also, here is an image of M96 taken with the 2.5 meter Isaac Newton Telescope. Notice the little edge-on galaxy embedded in the left side of M96. This little background galaxy can also be seen on my current image above. (Although not quite as well!)