RASC St. John's Centre

RASC - St. John's Centre
Members Photos


Image of Downtown Virgo taken from Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland. Photographed by Dave Newbury - March 10, 2015

	Downtown Virgo in Virgo, taken March 10, 2015 in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. Equipment - CPC1100 on wedge, Hyperstar 3, Canon 6D (unmodified). Autoguiding using ED80, QHY5LII-mono and PHD2. Images captured with assistance of BackYardEOS, stacked and processed in PixInsight. Stack of 24, 120 second subs @ 400iso (48min total integration time). These subs were the last set taken for the night - looking closely at the stars, some de-focusing is noticeable probably due to temperature changes (Hyperstar is more prone to focus changes). There was much work to remove gradients from this stack - a 70% moon was well up by the time these subs were captured (remnants visible in upper corners). The Hyperstar is only meant to fill a 27mm sensor - the camera has a 35mm sensor (full frame) - vignetting is noticeable even after application of flats. However, I did not crop the result as there are a few fuzzies in the border regions. Click on image for larger photo.
	Virgo widefield - with annotation. Above image but with NGC/IC fuzzies annotated. Annotation achieved using PixInsight's plate-solve and annotation scripts (mostly automated - very slick). Click on image for larger photo.
	Virgo with PGC annotation. Same image but with PGC level fuzzies annotated. Some indicated PGC's are not actually visible, however many are. Can you count how many? Virgo is getting higher in the sky this time of year - part of the reason this is considered galaxy season. Click on image for larger photo.