Richard Crisp wrote:
"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...

I find these odd ball galaxies much more fun than "normal" galaxies.
Besides, they are so rarely imaged no one knows if my version is "correct"
or not!



You sound like me and nebulae...

and the narrowband method is another way to pave my own way in terms of what
the standard reference image looks like

since no one but me, hubble and a few major observatories had typically shot
most of these objects in tricolor eline, these images sort of form the
initial reference collection to some degree. And they typically don't show
as many different ones as I have accumulated in three years of pushing it
hard. So in effect I get to define what is "correct" for a good many of
these objects and at all sorts of different focal lengths

the new stuff has slowed me down a bit in terms of eline nebulae but that's
a whole new universe of things to explore next!

that and a more than full time job in silicon valley.... no rest for the
weary!
rdc

Once kids started showing up I had to put my film astrophotography away
and earn some money. Then arthritis set in making it too painful to
haul the scope out and set it up. I had to drive about 20 miles to find
dark skies and was still using film. I'd have loved to start in with
CCD from the back yard (probably about the same as yours for light) but
still had kids to get through college. So it all waited until I retired
and moved up here a couple years ago. Took 18 months to get the house
built then the observatory. Wife seemed to think a roof over the house
was more important than one over the observatory for some reason.

So now I'm making up for all those lost years. And lost photos as most
of my film was lost to an ice storm. Now every few weeks I take a CD
into town and put it in the safe deposit box so that won't happen. Plus
they are stored on three hard drives in the house in different computers
on different floors. One is removable and in a fire safe in an outside
building. I'm not going to have that happen again!

Fair seeing tonight so catching some photons.

Oddly, now that it is 50F degrees warmer the scope has come back into
close collimation. Must be a cold issue in the design. I expect it to
be back to normal in another 10 degrees so haven't touched it. Come
summer I may have to adjust the other way!

Rick



Richard Crisp wrote:


that's really cool Rick

i've never heard of this but I'm not a galaxy or cluster guy.....


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...


After Leo I and Leo II comes Leo III. Why Leo II is also known as Leo B
but Leo III is Leo A I can't fathom. Leo III has a population of very
young stars which is odd for a dwarf with so little dust and gas. It
seems to have had several periods of star birth over its lifetime.

Leo I is a over 800 thousand light years away and Leo II 750 thousand
light years. They are satellites of our galaxy. Leo III however is 2.5
million light years away so a member of our local group but not a
satellite galaxy. Still, thanks to those young massive stars I was able
to resolve quite a few of its stars.

I tried something new when imaging this guy. I used 3x3 binning on the
color frames. Otherwise, through the filters I'd have needed a lot of
exposure time to capture the color of the faint stars. This allowed me
to use half the exposure time and still resolve the stars through the
filters. It turned out well so I may do this more often and save some
imaging time.

14" LX200R@f/10, L=4x10' binned 2x2, RGB=2x10' binned 3x3, STL-11000XM,
Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".