Messier 98

M98 surrounded by many faint galaxies.
The image was taken here at the AP observatory with my 175EDF refractor (with edge chip), over two nights. It consists of 30 x 600 sec subs, camera is my trusty QSI683WSG. Scope mounted on a 1600 GTO. Unfortunately I have no color data. Window of opportunity has closed for the next few days. I have identified some of the faint galaxies down to mag 19.

https://www.buytelescopes.com/content/images/thumbs/00c71904d71b709413561c828c5d43dbc701bece_m98-deep.jpg

Rolando

Spectacular! And some of the "stars" are no doubt galaxies too. I sometimes wonder what a deep image would look like without the foreground stars. I guess the brighter stars could be erased in software, but at some threshold even a smart program would have the same uncertainty that we have when looking at the image. I also like the stellar core and other detail of the main attraction.

Wow! That's very nice. So how do I go about dinging a little chip in my 155?

I'll give that image a 98 out of 100.
Was it guided or unguided?
Well done, Roland.

dan kowall

Really beautiful image of a not so common target. Maybe I'm an exception, probably due to my initial exposure to astrophotography in the 1950s and 60s, but I prefer the "uncolored" product. When my parents gave me a book "The Observer's Book of Astronomy" by Patrick Moore in 1962, I spent countless hours viewing and contemplating those imagination stimulating, black and white photos of DSOs. Your photos evoke the same wonder for me.