M108 and M97

Hi all. I got a few hours of clear sky on two nights last week. I fired up the new observatory and pointed the AP130 at M108 and M97, which both fit within the filed of view of my Starlight Xpress H-16 camera. I took 18 x 10 minutes luminance on the first night, then added 80 minutes each RGB on night two. Here is the result of my efforts. I managed to capture a hint of the outer shell on M97, which is rarely imaged. The field is also scattered with small galaxies. The seeing was pretty bad, but the image turned out OK. I have attached a 33% version. For a full version, go to the "Latest Images" page on my website at the following link.


Link:
http://www.allred-astro.com/gpage8.html


Be sure to click the smaller images to get the full version. Take a look around the image... there is a lot to look at. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Cheers,
Tyler

Attached Image:

That is very cool, Tyler! A great scale for these...they are both kind of odd looking objects to be in the same field of view.

Nicely done, Tyler!

eric

Great use of those few hours. About a jillion galaxies in the background of the full sized image. Definitely worth the browse.

Charlie

Nice shot, great color, depth and detail. I remember when film shots of an hour or two were really long (hypered-film). Then came CCD and images were just 5-10 min.and went so deep with detail. Now CCD images are 3-12 hours and are way better than what was published in magazines and books from the big scope on film. Who would have thought you could get such a great image with a 5.1" telescope 15-25 years ago. Great times for astrophotography.

Thanks for sharing, it would look great on any wall!!


I only wish the rain would stop.


Sam

Great composition.

Rolando