Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) in RGBHα
These are the most distant galaxies from us (at about 12 million light years) that do not show redshift. The expansion of space, or Hubble flow, kicks in at about that distance for all galaxies. M81 (on the left) is gravitationally disturbing M82 (on the right). These tidal interactions have increased the star formation rate in M82, and we can see hydrogen streaming out of the center of that galaxy in response to the rapid star formation.
I've shot this pair from Joshua Tree and Death Valley, and probably a few other places. The RGB data is from 47 sub frames of various exposures lengths, but generally good quality. The Atik 314L+ color CCD in combination with the Hyperstar has done well there. But now I can add Hα from my driveway, so I did. An additional 15 5 min exposures with the Atik 414-EX and hydrogen alpha filter. Thank you to Light Vortex Astronomy for providing instructions on how to combine the data.
All images taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, combining data, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) in RGBHα
These are the most distant galaxies from us (at about 12 million light years) that do not show redshift. The expansion of space, or Hubble flow, kicks in at about that distance for all galaxies. M81 (on the left) is gravitationally disturbing M82 (on the right). These tidal interactions have increased the star formation rate in M82, and we can see hydrogen streaming out of the center of that galaxy in response to the rapid star formation.
I've shot this pair from Joshua Tree and Death Valley, and probably a few other places. The RGB data is from 47 sub frames of various exposures lengths, but generally good quality. The Atik 314L+ color CCD in combination with the Hyperstar has done well there. But now I can add Hα from my driveway, so I did. An additional 15 5 min exposures with the Atik 414-EX and hydrogen alpha filter. Thank you to Light Vortex Astronomy for providing instructions on how to combine the data.
All images taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, combining data, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.