Observation Log - December 29, 2000

Observation Log - December 29, 2000 - Tinton Falls, NJ

[NOTE: The seeing was great tonight, despite the cold (15 degrees), the Christmas lights, and the snow cover on the ground. Setup on the 12" Meade LX200 was the Crayford focuser/3.3 reducer/1.25" visual back/MX516 camera. Tonight the images were all taken WITHOUT the IR blocking filter. I did a very good set of flats just before dawn. I didn't turn on the dew heater, and I didn't get any frost on the corrector plate all night long. -GW]

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici, magnitude 8.4, dimensions 11'.2 x 6'.9 and a distance of 15 million light years. The frames were shot between 4:45 and 5:50 a.m. the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 53 exposures for a total integration time of 53 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. Then I used a mild unsharp mask before moving the image into MaxIm. Once there, I applied a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, medium), and the image was finished with a contrast stretch, then resampled to be about 40 percent larger.

M82, an irregular galaxy in Ursa Major, magnitude 8.4, dimensions 11'.2 x 4'.3 and a distance of 17 million light years. The frames were shot between 5:57 and 6:27 a.m. the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 23 exposures for a total integration time of 23 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. That image was moved into MaxIm DL for a little processing fun. Here are four versions of M82. The first is the calibrated image, directly out of AstroArt. Next is a version that has been processed with a Digital Development filter set for kernel, low-pass, more, which is a pleasing (to me at least) photo. Next, I processed for higher contrast and more detail by using a Digital Development filter set for FFT, low-pass, mild, along with an unsharp mask set for FFT, low-pass, hard. Finally, I took that last image, and turned the brightness up, and the contrast down, which shows considerably more edge detail in the galaxy, and brings out many of the fainter stars in the field.

NGC1275/1272/1273/1278/1274/1277/1281, all part of Abell 426, the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. Here is a map of the galaxy field.

And here are the stats on the major players:
NGC1272, mag 11.8, 2' x 2', 13.4 mag/sq arcmin, 190 million l.y.
NGC1273, mag 13.2, 1'.5 x 1'.5, 11.5 mag/sq arcmin
NGC1274, mag 14.1, 30" x 30", 11.0 mag/sq arcmin
NGC1275, mag 11.9, 3'.5 x 2'.5, 11.9 mag/sq arcmin, 230 million l.y.
NGC1277, mag 13.5, 48" x 18", 11.7 mag/sq arcmin
NGC1278, mag 12.4, 1'.5 x 1'.0, 12.4 mag/sq arcmin
NGC1281, mag 13.3, 30" x 30", 13.1 mag/sq arcmin

And here are the stats on the minor players:
PGC12378, m15.9
PGC12397, m15.5
PGC12405, m15.0
PGC12409, m16.4
PGC12414, m17.6
PGC12416, m17.5
PGC12417, m15.8
PGC12430, m15.3
PGC12451, m16.3

The frames were shot between 10:07 and 11:22 p.m. the evening of December 28. This composite was made from 53 exposures for a total integration time of 53 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. That image was moved into MaxIm DL for a Digital Development filter (kernel, low- pass) and a contrast stretch.

NGC2541, a galaxy in Lynx, magnitude 11.8, dimensions 6'.6 x 3'.5, surface brightness is 14.1 mag/sq arcmin, distance is 26 million light years. The frames were shot between 11:31 and 12:51 a.m. ending the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 60 exposures for a total integration time of 60 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. Then I used a mild adaptive unsharp mask before moving the image into MaxIm. Once there, I applied a Digital Development filter (kernel, low-pass), and the image was finished with a contrast stretch.

NGC2832/2831/2830/2825/2834, all part of Abell 779, a galaxy cluster in Lynx. Here is a map of the galaxy field.

And here are the stats on the major galaxies:
NGC2832, mag 11.9, 3' x 2', 13.1 mag/sq arcmin, 300 million l.y.
NGC2831, mag 14.5, 1'.4 x 1'.4, 13.9 mag/sq arcmin
NGC2830, mag 14.3, 1'.2 x 0'.3, 15.3 mag/sq arcmin
NGC2825, mag 14.4, 54" x 24", 14.5 mag/sq arcmin, 230 million l.y.
NGC2834, mag 15.5, 14.4 mag/sq arcmin

The frames were shot between 12:58 and 02:13 a.m. the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 62 exposures for a total integration time of 62 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. That image was moved into MaxIm DL for a Digital Development filter (kernel, low- pass) and a contrast stretch.

NGC3507, a galaxy in Leo, magnitude 10.9, dimensions 3'.4 x 2'.8, surface brightness is 14.1 mag/sq arcmin, distance is 38 million light years. The frames were shot between 2:19 and 3:24 a.m. the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 54 exposures for a total integration time of 54 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat- darks, then aligned and composited. The image was moved into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (kernel, low-pass), then back into AstroArt for a mild adaptive unsharp mask. Then it was back into MaxIm to finish the image with a contrast stretch.

M66, a spiral galaxy in Leo, magnitude 9.0, dimensions 9'.1 x 4'.2, distance is 21.5 million light years. The frames were shot between 3:28 and 4:37 a.m. the morning of December 29. This composite was made from 57 exposures for a total integration time of 57 minutes. All images were processed in AstroArt with darks, flats and flat-darks, then aligned and composited. I used a mild adaptive unsharp mask, and then moved it into MaxIm for a Digital Development filter (FFT, low-pass, custom 7.5). Then it was finished with a contrast stretch. This is a reshoot on M66. My previous image was a 5-minute exposure taken with the 10" LX200 back in January of 2000.