RASC St. John's Centre

RASC - St. John's Centre
Members Photos


Images of M95, M5, M57, M65, M66, M81, M87, M88, M91, and M99 taken from St. John's, Newfoundland. Photographed by Chris Stevenson - April 15 - 20, 2012

The following images were taken with a modified Canon T1i (500D). The T1i was attached to the back of a Celestron CPC1100 11" SCT with a 2" adapter and T-ring, with an Astronomik CLS EOS clip-in filter inserted into the camera body. ISO was set to 3200 after some tests showed this was optimal. All exposures were 30 seconds and manually-triggered with a shutter release cable. Images were actually saved as JPGs, not RAWs.
	Image of "M95", with recent (now fading) supernova SNe2012aw, indicated. Sum of 26 separate 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M5", in Serpens. Three 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M57", Ring Planetary Nebula in Lyra. Three 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M65", part of the "Leo Triplet". 17 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M66", also part of the "Leo Triplet". 14 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M81", in Ursa Major. The telescope was peering into the glare of a high-pressure sodium streetlamp for these exposures, taken at the end of the night. Seventeen 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M87", with near-luminal velocity central jet visible. Also below and to right in this image is not-so-supergiant elliptical NGC 4478. (Several of the "dots" here are actually galaxies, all part of the Virgo Cluster), photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M88", in southern Coma Berenices, a bright Type 2 Seyfert galaxy. 24 30s exposures, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M91", also in southern Coma Berenices, a barred ring galaxy that is also the faintest in Charles Messier's catalog (V mag = 10.2). Only 14 30s exposures (not enough to do it justice). More info is here. The faint smudge bottom, left of centre, is PGC 41978, photographed from St. John's on April 15, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.
	Image of "M99", in Coma, a few days later on a very dewy night, w/o CLS filter. Sixteen 30s exposures happened to track well and also be unattenuated by dew on the collector plate, photographed from St. John's on April 20, 2012 by Chris Stevenson. Click on image for full original photo.