M61 and SN 2020jfo, LRGB, 15 May 2020 (David Dearden)

M61 and SN 2020jfo, LRGB, 15 May 2020

52.5 ± 2.3 Mly

Having seen Victor Van Puyenbroek’s nice image of M61 showing supernova SN 2020jfo, I could not resist trying this target now that the clouds have somewhat dispersed and the Moon has waned a bit. It’s already a little late in the season to allow a lot of integration in one night, so I didn’t get as much as I normally try for. Although I have not seen any light curves for this Type II supernova, to my eye it looks like it might be starting to fade a little. Lots of galaxies in the background, as should not be surprising given this is a view of part of the Virgo Cluster. This is a far better image than my last previous attempt, 5 years ago.

Date: 15-16 May 2020

Subject: M61, “Swelling Spiral” Galaxy, with SN 2020jfo

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted L, R, G, B

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + ASI120MM-mini +PHD 2.6.7 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.1.0.479

Exposure: 40x180 L, 16x120 R, 16x120 G, 18x120 B

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker 4.2.3 (64-bit) dark+flat+bias, κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5

Processing: StarTools 1.6.394RC: Combined L, R, G, & B in StarTools, accounting for exposure times to add in synthetic luminance. Software binned 2x2, cropped, vignette wiped, developed, HDR (reveal DSO core), deconvolution, color with large saturation enhancement, untrack denoised (grain elimination strategy 1). Several cycles of layer-masked levels to get rid of an uncorrected dust ring, and a little fine levels adjustment. AstroFrame.

Final
Original
B
C

B

Description: Same image, with SN 2020jfo marked

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Same data but with “optimize soft,” more deconvolution, more saturation, and some background correction. This might be better than the original if you don’t look too close.

Uploaded: ...

Fast Newtonians
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ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3520418
PixInsight job	21C4OHR5V6AAXURE6OX2V6JDTC2WU0QG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h21m58s.31
RA (top/left)	12h24m15s.54
RA (top/right)	12h19m50s.61
RA (bottom/right)	12h19m41s.21
RA (bottom/left)	12h24m05s.97

Dec (center)	+04°28′27″.10
Dec (top/left)	+04°52′21″.9
Dec (top/right)	+04°55′27″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+04°04′31″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+04°01′27″.9

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