Sky News - CA (2020-03 & 2020-04)

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M51

“On May 6, 2019, someone on a local astronomy message

board had pasted Attilla Danko's Clear Sky Chart showing

dark blue boxes across the board. Good seeing and

transparency on the same night is a rare occasion in New

Brunswick, a province that seems to serve as a perma-

nent anchor for the jet stream. I set up my eight-inch

Astro-Tech Ritchey-Chrétien, along with a ZWO ASI1600MM

camera, ZWO ilter wheel, ZWO off-axis guider, and an

iOptron CEM60 mount. M51 was well-positioned that night,

passing directly overhead. I acquired 25 x three-minute

luminance frames and 15 x ive-minute RGB frames. Pro-

cessing was done entirely in PixInsight. The dynamic range

of the galaxy was compressed to reveal structures near

the bright core. Local histogram equalization was used to

enhance the dust lanes.”

Whirlpool Galaxy — Emile Cormier

Bouctouche, NB

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M102

“Messier 102 is not as large or bright as the

previous pair (M81 and M82) but it’s located

in a colourful starield in Draco. I used my

eight-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and

QSI 683 to capture 160 x 60 second subs all in

one night. Astro Pixel Processor and PixInsight

were then used to create the inal image.” •

Galaxy — Marc Ricard

Pointe-Claire, QC

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M81 &

M82

“Some of the most beautiful galaxies in the northern

sky can be found in Ursa Major. Two of my favourites,

Messier 81 and 82, are bright enough to be glimpsed

through binoculars under a dark sky. They’re also

favourites of deep-sky imagers, since they can be

captured with relatively modest instruments. I let my

trusty four-inch Takahashi FSQ-106 EDXiii refractor and

QSI camera follow this galactic duo over many nights

to capture 23 hours of RGB and Ha sub-exposures.

These were then calibrated and combined with Astro

Pixel Processor and processed in PixInsight.”

Bode & Cigar Galaxies — Marc Ricard

Pointe-Claire, QC

SKYNEWS • MAR/APR 2020