Why so many galaxies this time of year? Well, it is partly because at night during this time of year, we are looking away from our Milky Way's galactic core and out into deep space. During the summer, our views are populated by the vast rivers of stars, dust, and nebulae from the spiral arms of our own galaxy. But looking away from our galaxy in the Spring reveals the great desert of space, populated by millions of other "tiny" galaxies that are unobstructed by our Milky Way.Every star and large nebulae we see are part of our own Milky Way. This is why there are not too many wide field targets in the Spring, since we are looking away from them.
Anyway, here is a shot of M81 & M82. They are a lovely pair in the northern sky and one of the few wide field targets available at this time (framing them together).
Here are the stats:
FSQ 106 ED f/8
QHY8 camera
QHY8 camera
13 x 15 min
Maxim, CS3
By the way, you may recognize M81 as an image I took (by itself) at Christmas time with my LX200 scope (with a lot more magnification). Here it is for comparison 
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4 comments:
Just beautiful John. The top one esp with all the nice purples and magentas.
Thanks Bob! Glad you stopped by. Hope you guys are doing swell.
I will hopefully have a BUNCH of new images in a couple of weeks. Kim and I are heading to the Texas Star Party -- yeehaw!
Very nice, I like the detail in the second, beautiful image.
Thanks for your comments Dave, and thanks for stopping by.
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