9 replies to this topic

[FRANC LILL]

Hi,

 

 

Here is another week galaxy, in good position for evening observation: M74.

 

 

M 74 is a spiral face-on galaxy, of 9.4 visual magnitude, but of very low surface brightness so that it barely stands out from sky background. It deserves its name, the Phantom Galaxy, NGC628. In the constellation of Pisces, it is about 30 million light years away.

It is a blurry spot at the eyepiece with a weak central core, but the spiral arms appear when using EAA. It reminds a little of M101. Only about 1/3 of the surface of the galaxy is reported in the sketch, the extensions are missed. However the angular shape of the northern arm is clearly there.

 

Clear skies,

Francis

 

 

16" Dobsonian, eyepiece observation with Ethos 13mm and EAA observation with SiOnyx Aurora NV camera in afocal mount behind a 25mm Celestron eyepiece, good conditions of seeing and average transparency. Sketching on black Canson with pastel pencils. Photography of the sketch, and digital redrawing of the stars and final formatting.

 

 

[mdowns]

This is a very attractive rendition Francis. Nicely done!

[frank5817]

Francis,

 

Very nice sketch of this galaxy. I have never been able to trace the arms of this one out very far from the core.

 

Frank

[niteskystargazer]

Francis,

 

Very good sketch of M-74, the Phantom Galaxy  .

 

CS,KLU,

 

 ,

 

Tom

[DDEV]

Hi Francis,

I've yet to observe a spiral galaxy, but with your sketch of M74 I might just count it as my first observation - very nice indeed!

Clear skies,

Darren.

Edited by DDEV, 21 November 2020 - 01:51 PM.

[Voyager 3]

Having never been observed it , you helped me to see it    .

[descott12]

Hi Francis,

Thanks for all your great posts. Because of them, I finally decided to get a Sionyx. I actually like it for what it does but I am having a problem that I hope you can help with.

When I just view through it at the sky at night, the background has some noise but it is minimal. But when I attempt to view into an eyepiece (at M42 for example) I can sometimes see the trapezium but it just becomes alot of colored noise. 

I am guessing it is mostly dark in the field so the gain gets automatically turned way up?

 

There must be some way to eliminate this? Otherwise I am not sure how you would have gotten such great views.

 

Thanks in advance.

[astronz59]

Great starfield and sketch of M74, Francis. I have a similar relationship with M77 - never seen this though. Thanks for sharing!

[FRANC LILL]

 

When I just view through it at the sky at night, the background has some noise but it is minimal. But when I attempt to view into an eyepiece (at M42 for example) I can sometimes see the trapezium but it just becomes alot of colored noise. 

 

Thank you for the comments!

Make sure you are in Night vision mode, set the speed at 1.5 sec, better work in BW mode and try to adapt the gain settings +/- (set button, front and rear)

 

Francis 

[descott12]

Thank you for the comments!

Make sure you are in Night vision mode, set the speed at 1.5 sec, better work in BW mode and try to adapt the gain settings +/- (set button, front and rear)

 

Francis 

Thanks for the tips. I think my exposure was way to short.