Here is some of the work I have been doing over the last few years. A lot of it has been done with two Starlight Xpress Cameras I own. First was an Hx-916 and later an SXV-H9. More recently I've been using an SBIG ST-4000XMC color camera (see Latest Images). I apologize for the lack of descriptions on the older images. I wanted to get something up on this site. I'll try to fill in some details as time goes on or as I replace them with newer versions.
As I progress in this hobby it seems as though I'm never satisfied with them. New cameras, new scopes, new processing skills seems to keep the goal always just out of reach, which keeps this pursuit always challenging and always new. It looks like I'll never run out of things to image in the night sky. And if I do, I'm sure I'll find new reasons to start over again.
One of the bright spiral galaxies visible in the north sky is M63, the Sunflower Galaxy. M63, also catalogued as NGC 5055, can be found with a small telescope in the constellation of Canes Venaciti. M63 interacts gravitationally with M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy) and several smaller galaxies. Light takes about 35 million years to reach us from M63, and about 60,000 years to cross the Sb-type spiral galaxy. M63 also shines across the electromagnetic spectrum and is thought to have undergone bursts of intense star formation. Stars in the outer regions of the Sunflower Galaxy rotate about the center at a speed so high they should fly off into space, indicating that some sort of invisible, gravitationally-binding, dark matter is present.
M83 is a bright spiral galaxy that can be found with a small telescope in the constellation of Hydra. M83 is a member of the Centaurus group of galaxies, a nearby group dominated by the massive galaxy Centaurus A. Light takes about 15 million years to reach us from M83. The blue color of the spiral arms is caused by the many bright young stars that have recently formed there. Dark dust lanes are also visible. Stars and gas in spiral arms seem to be responding to much more mass than is visible here, implying that galaxies are predominantly composed of some sort of dark matter. Finding the nature of this dark matter remains one of the great challenges of modern science.
Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what? M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This galactic collision might have stirred up the inner stars and gas in M82, causing the unusual dark lanes of dust visible in the above photograph. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas, however. Recent evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic "superwind." M82 is a starburst galaxy with a very active center containing star clusters far brighter than any in our own Milky Way Galaxy .The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of Ursa Major.
Another trip to Chiefland has yielded a few more treasures. One of the nicer spiral galaxies, M 81 can be found in Ursa Major. Note the small blue galaxy that is likely being consumed by the bigger M 81.
1200sx17 SBIG ST-4000XCM Griener 12.5 w/Keller corrector f/3.7
I considered M 78 to boring to photograph in the days of film because the faint regions were unrecordable, I now find this region to be very interesting.
1200sx8 SBIG ST-4000XCM Griener 12.5 Newtonian w/Keller corrector f/3.7