Cropped image
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy
M51 (NGC 5194) is the spiral galaxy on the left. NGC 5195 is the galaxy on the right. In South Korea, it's called a father & son galaxy since it looks like they hold their hands. Does it make sense? The M51 is located in Canes Venatici, which is one of famous beautiful galaxies. It was discovered by Messier in October 1773 and catalogued by him in January 1774. Its companion galaxy, NGC 5195, also was discovered in 1781 by Messier's colleague, P. Mechain. These two galaxies are one of the most famous interacting galaxy pairs. Finally, they will merge, showing a single large galaxy one day.
It's been a while since I did astrophotography in November I guess. This image is the first one I had taken with the latest configuration in my current place Kent. It is an LRGB composite (Baader filters) CCD image taken with a Takahashi Epsilon-180 astrograph using an SBIG ST-8300M CCD (-15 C). I just confirmed this is one of super fast OTAs ever. The weather condition was a little humid and windy, but it worked fine. Takahashi Epsilon180 astrograph (f/2.8); SBIG ST-8300M (Luminance 300"x5 (1x1 binned) and RGB 300"x3 (2x2 binned)); Takahashi EM-200 Temma 2M; CCDSoft, MaxIm DL5 and Photoshop CS4, Kent, OH, March 21, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment