Lovejoy

Sky maps to locate Comet C/2014 Q2 #Lovejoy

Originally shared by Astronomy Guru

Sky maps to locate Comet C/2014 Q2 #Lovejoy

IC2574 2022-05-21
IC2574 is the faint smudge in the center, 13 million light-years away. A dim dwarf spiral galaxy. According to Wikipedia, approximately 90% of its mass is dark matter. Taken with a 110mm F/7 refractor. Total exposure time is about 13 hours.
M63 2022-05-21
Sometimes referred to as “the Sunflower Galaxy”. This image has about 7 hours total exposure time. It is quite a pretty galaxy — if you zoom in (ie, click on the picture), it looks like a swirl of altocumulus clouds on a spring day.
M102 2022-05-19
M102 is a difficult object for my setup and conditions. It is, apparently, known as the “Spindle Galaxy”. A five or six times blowup of the above image does manage to show the “spindle”, barely: This Hubble image gives a better idea of how it got the name.
Another M101 2022-05-14
I am slowly accumulating more time on M101. This image is over 8 hours total exposure, under generally poor conditions — not quite double the previous version. It’s a good thing the telescope mostly runs unattended. The blurred spot in the lower right corner is NGC 5474, a true physical companion of M101 that is […]