Leo Triplet – Three Galaxies at the Limit of Backyard Astrophotography
After getting a pretty good image of the Orion Nebula from my backyard, I wanted to try some tougher targets. With about half the moon in view and it sitting near Orion, I had to move away from the Milky Way to find a good deep space object to image.
I tried the Christmas Tree Cluster first. The result is below. Lesson learned: the sky in my backyard is too bright to image something that dark. Even with lots of data crunching & image stretching, there’s just not much nebula visible.
The limits of my backyard. The Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC2264.
Scope: Explore Scientific ED127
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: SBIG STF-8300C
6x 5 minute exposures
Henderson, NV
I tried the Leo Triplet next. Neither of these have very much imaging time, but even with just 5x 5 minute shots the result isn’t too bad. Here are the galaxies Messier 65, Messier 66, and NCG3628.
Leo Triplet. M65, M66, NCG3628.
Scope: Explore Scientific ED127
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: SBIG STF-8300C
5x 5 minute exposures
Henderson, NV
So, from now on I know what not to waste my time on from my house. What’s next!?