M104

This is my image of the Sombrero Galaxy or M104.

The Sombrero Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus, being about 9.55 megaparsecs from our galaxy, within the local supercluster. It has a diameter of approximately 15 kiloparsecs, three-tenths the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its outer disk, which is viewed almost edge-on. The dark dust lane and the bulge give it the appearance of a sombrero hat. Astronomers initially thought the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy; but the Spitzer Space Telescope found that the dust ring was larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and is considered by some authors to be the galaxy with the highest absolute magnitude within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way. Its large bulge, central supermassive black hole, and dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

 

 

CHI-1 is a Planewave CDK24, a 61-cm telescope with Corrected Dall Kirkham optical design, situated in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile. It is equipped with a set of Astrodon astrophotography filters as well as Sloan photometry filters and it's, therefore, an excellent choice for both scientific applications and astrophotography of deep-sky objects.

 

Telescope Model: Planewave CDK24

Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches)

Focal Length: 3962 mm

F-ratio: 6.5

Mount: Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders

Minimum elevation: 30 degrees

Camera Specification

Model: FLI PL 9000 (spec sheet)

Pixel Size: 12 μm

Pixel Array: 3056 x 3056

Pixel Resolution: 0.62 arcsec/pixel

Cooling: -25 degrees in Summer, -30 degrees in Winter

Field of View: 31.8 x 31.8 arcmin

Filters(50mm square): Astrodon LRGB 2GEN,

Position angle: 359.36 degrees

Guiding

Off-Axis guider: Astrodon MonsterMOAG

Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar

Observatory name: El Sauce Observatory

Location: Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile

Coordinates: 30.472529° S, 70.762999° W (Google maps)

Elevation: 1525 m

Average seeing: 1.3'' - 8''

All Data Taken remotely via Telescopelive

 

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Done