drdavies07
Messiers 59 & 60
The galaxies of the Virgo cluster in Messier's catalogue are among the outstanding Messier objects on my Messier imaging marathon. I have found these galaxies to be challenging objects to observe. The spring weather is usually contrary and the rapidly brightening evening skies give little time for imaging. I was very pleased, therefore, to image both M59 and M60 in the field of view of my 8-inch RC. I have found this image to be fascinating to examine as it contains many faint galaxies including the compact dwarf galaxies associated with M59 and M60.
Capturing the image data proved to be quite challenging as there are few bright stars in this part of the sky and my off-axis guide camera had to use a mag 12 star as a guide star, needing constant monitoring of the image capture process.
Messiers 59 and 60 in Virgo were discovered by Johann Kohler on 11th April 1799 whilst observing a comet. Messier himself discovered them, independently, days later and noted them in his list. Messier 60 (lower left) is interacting with NGC 4647, discovered by William Herschel and was given the designation of Arp 116 by Harlton Arp.
The image comprises 20 x five-minutes luminance and 10 x 5-minutes each of RGB, binned 2 x 2.
Equipment:
Telescope: 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
Location: Cambridge, UK
Messiers 59 & 60
The galaxies of the Virgo cluster in Messier's catalogue are among the outstanding Messier objects on my Messier imaging marathon. I have found these galaxies to be challenging objects to observe. The spring weather is usually contrary and the rapidly brightening evening skies give little time for imaging. I was very pleased, therefore, to image both M59 and M60 in the field of view of my 8-inch RC. I have found this image to be fascinating to examine as it contains many faint galaxies including the compact dwarf galaxies associated with M59 and M60.
Capturing the image data proved to be quite challenging as there are few bright stars in this part of the sky and my off-axis guide camera had to use a mag 12 star as a guide star, needing constant monitoring of the image capture process.
Messiers 59 and 60 in Virgo were discovered by Johann Kohler on 11th April 1799 whilst observing a comet. Messier himself discovered them, independently, days later and noted them in his list. Messier 60 (lower left) is interacting with NGC 4647, discovered by William Herschel and was given the designation of Arp 116 by Harlton Arp.
The image comprises 20 x five-minutes luminance and 10 x 5-minutes each of RGB, binned 2 x 2.
Equipment:
Telescope: 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien
Camera: QSI 683
Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
Location: Cambridge, UK