Spring is the time for galaxies in the constellation Virgo. Last night, I targeted Messier 87 for the first time. The conditions weren't great, but M87 is very large and bright which made up for the marginal seeing conditions. This galaxy is the most massive one we know of, with estimates of 2,700 thousand million Suns within it. It's also famous for its central jet (not seen in the photos above) which extends out 65,000 light years and emits synchrotron radiation (light accelerating perpendicular to its velocity). At its center is a supermassive black hole which famously became the first black hole ever imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in April 2019, an astounding feat for humanity. Aside from the astounding attributes of M87, it is surrounded by many other much fainter galaxies. Can you spot them all in the top photo? I circled the ones I could see in the lower photo.
April 24 and 30, 2020
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
SBIG STF-8300C Camera
Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector
Skyglow filter
58 subframes at 3 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 2 hours 54 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
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