A tricky target: M102 and friends! (Swipe for some close ups!)
This is not the best target to image unless you have a large telescope, but it had to be done for the purpose of our growing Messier catalog!
In this field of view at 655mm with a full frame camera, several galaxies of all kinds can be seen. The one on the right was my primary target, M102, also known as the Spindle Galaxy. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain but believed to be a duplicate of M101 and was originally not supposed to be entered by Charles Messier. The galaxy on the left is NGC 5907, also known as the Knife Edge or Splinter Galaxy. Hubble’s picture of that object is pretty cool as you can see a bunch of spiraling gases going crazy around the galaxy, which is impossible to see here.
Several other galaxies can be seen all over the image (see the high-resolution version on our website!). I really love the spiral galaxy visible near the bottom, and really wish I could image that one with a large telescope someday.
Also, this image has no darks and no flats! Also, this is just 2 hours and 15 minutes of total exposure. My laptop got full and stupid SGP didn’t tell me until sunrise. It just kept on writing 0KB files like everything was fine 😂 I just bought a Nuc so that I can replace my laptop and have some more storage.
More info:
https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/_m102
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