Challenging Night of imaging Herschel 400 Galaxies

Challenging Night of imaging Herschel 400 Galaxies

Posted: 23 June 2023

Wednesday evening, 21 June 2023, I joined many other southeastern Arizona dark sky advocates for a meeting at the DarkSky International (formerly the International Dark-Sky Association) headquarters in Tucson. As it was all day, it was still cloudy when I returned home. Thursday, 22 June, the sky was mostly clear all day.

Open: Thursday, 22 June 2023, 1816 MST
Temperature: 92°F

Session: 1893
Conditions: Mostly clear, windy

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
1.25" 5.5mm eyepiece
Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector

Camera:
iPhone 13 Pro Max
D850 DSLR

1826 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Venus, 102X and 443X + Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC).

Took this handheld iPhone 13 Pro Max afocal 443X + ADC image of Venus using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/1800sec, 1X lens).

1842 MST: Began relaxing on the observatory patio bench.

1922 MST: Back inside the observatory. Viewed Venus, 443X + ADC. I then prepared the D850 DSLR for imaging more Herschel 400 galaxies.

1928 MST: Back to the bench.

1938 MST: Sunset. Calm now.

1948 MST: Back at the 12" telescope. Viewed Venus, 443X + ADC and 102X. Then viewed the Moon, 102X. Took this handheld iPhone image of the Moon using NightCap Camera (ISO 34, 1/640sec, 1X lens).

1955 MST: Took this iPhone photo of the observatory and the clouds to the south that would pester me during my imaging of the galaxies.

1958 MST: Relaxed on the patio bench to watch the stars come out.

2030 MST: Back inside the observatory. Viewed Venus, 102X and 443X + ADC.

Mounted the D850 DSLR at prime focus, focused on the star Spica, and locked the 12" primary mirror.

2042 MST: High Precision ON.

Slewed to NGC4594 (M104, Sombrero Galaxy), my first Herschel 400 target for the night.

2043 MST: StarLock ON.

I had a good run of imaging for the first five galaxies. They were StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes, ISO 3200. Then the clouds began hiding my targets. And if that wasn't enough to cause problems, gusty winds came up as I continued imaging. Some of the later exposures were shorter and at higher ISO. NGC4559 was not autoguided (30 seconds, ISO 6400). As the time to get good images of some targets stretched out, the last objects were very low in the western sky. A challenging night of imaging Herschel 400 galaxies.

NGC4594 (M104, Sombrero Galaxy)

NGC4526 (galaxy)

NGC4527 (galaxy)

NGC4535 (galaxy)

NGC4536 (galaxy)

NGC4546 (galaxy)

NGC4548 (M91, galaxy)

NGC4550 (galaxy)

NGC4559 (galaxy)

NGC4565 (Needle Galaxy)

NGC4570 (galaxy)

NGC4596 (galaxy)