M65 & M66 - a photo on Flickriver

M65 & M66

            The clouds have parted in the UK. 

This image of M65 and M66 is an exercise in seeing what can be achieved with a 8" RC scope.

M65 and M66 are two galaxies of the Leo triplet and are usually imaged at a shorter focal length to provide a large enough field to encompass all three galaxies.

My 8" RC turns out to have a focal length of 1665 mm, not 1624 mm, as advertised. A Ronchi grating test shows that at 1624 mm the scope is overcorrected and the mirrors need to be moved closer together to be properly corrected. 

I captured 4 hrs of 10 min luminance subs and was able to use 15 of them. These were combined with an RGB image of the Leo Triplet captured in 2017 using an APM refractor at 700 mm focal length.

L: 150 min in 10 min subs with RC8
RGB: 10 x 5min each with APM 107 APO
C: QSI 583 plus Lodestar
M: SW EQ6

Processing: PI and PS

I reprocessed this on 8th March 2019 and managed to get rid of the magenta cast.

Taken on: May 4, 2018

Tags:

Messier 65

M65

M66

AT8RC

RC8

APM 107 « less

Sets appears in: • Galaxies

Groups appears in: • Astrophotography - Astronomy - Astrophysics • Astronomers Talk more » • in explore « less

Stats: 7,795 views / 10 comments

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