By: Sam Pitts (samsastro.com)
Comet McNaught C/2006 P1 was a great naked eye comet. However in Oregon, it appeared while we had a snow storm in Eugene. The above image was taken at Fern Ridge Reservoir with thousands of Canadian Geese flying about, some of them appear in this image. The comet was very close to the sun at this latitude and very difficult to image.
| Telescope / Lens | 35mm f/2 Canon at f/2.8 |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on Losmandy G11 |
| Camera | Canon F-1 with Bright Screen & Angle B magnifier |
| Filters | UV |
| Film | Kodak ED200 (Slide Film) Slide #05 |
| Exposure | 120 seconds; manual guiding FS/78 |
| Processing | Pushed, Scanned – 2400 dpi, Photoshop |
| Date | June 19, 2004 |
| Location | Eagles Rest, south of Dexter, Oregon |
| Conditions | 2500′ magnitude 6 Skies; Clear, steady |
| Telescope / Lens | 50 f/1.4 Canon Lens at f/2.8 |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on Losmandy G11 |
| Camera | Canon F-1 with Bright Screen & Angle B magnifier |
| Filters | 52mm UV |
| Film | Provia 400F (Slide Film) #10 |
| Exposure | 15 minutes; manual guiding Takahashi FS/78 |
| Processing | Slide Scanned – 2400 dpi, Photoshop |
| Date | September 26, 2003 |
| Location | Eagles Rest, south of Dexter, Oregon |
| Conditions | 2557′ magnitude 6 Skies; Clear, steady |
M31 Original imaging information
9/20/2009 10:46 PM Latitude: 43° 31′ 21″ North Longitude: 122˚ 52’ 35” West 4658 ft. Snow Peak S/E of Cottage Grove. OR. Seeing: E Transparency: 7 Telescopes / Optics: TMB 80mm f/ 4.8 384mm Mount : AP1200 Camera: SBIG ST10XME 3.5 hours; LRGB; L=120min (10 & 5 min) RGB 1.5 Hours (3x10min ea.). FOV 133.4′ x 89.5′ Information: Really tried to go deep into M31 and very satisfied with the results from a 3.1” refractor. Hope to add Ha channel in the future. Captured with CCDSoft, processed with CCDStack and Photoshop.
M31 Additional Imaging information
10/23/2022 10:03 PM Latitude: 33° 29′ 01.48″ North Longitude: 116° 43′ 19.24″ West. Elevation: 4321 ft. Jupiter Ridge #4 Observatory, OCA site, near Anza, CA. Seeing: E Transparency: 6 SQM: 20.78 Bortle: 4 Telescopes / Optics: TMB 80mm f/ 4.8 384mm. Mount: AP1200 Camera: SBIG ST10xme CFW10 FOV: 133.4′ x 89.5′. Filter: Astrodon L series E Gen. 2 & 9nm Ha Total time 65 min. Information: M31 image captured with CCDSoft; Subs- L= 5 minutes x 3 (15), Ha= 10 minutes x 5 (50)-20°c. Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS6 & PWP8. Add previous data from 9/20/2009 L-2 hours, RGB 1.5 hours + 10/23/2022 65 min. Total 275 min or 4.5 hours.
The Andromeda Galaxy is readily visible from a dark sky location as a fuzzy patch of light covering approximately 3+ degrees or 6 times the width of our moon. Andromeda is approximately 2.5 million light years from Earth and 220,000 light years across. Making it much larger than our own Milky Way galaxy at only 100,000 lights years across. In about 5 billion years both our Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda will collide and begin to coalesce, perhaps evolving into an even larger elliptical type galaxy. This image reveals much detail and numerous globular star clusters and nebulae are visible. Amazing for just a 3.2 diameter refractor, but Thomas Back (TMB) was a primer Telescope Maker and his designs live on.
Images below reprocessed with data captured on 10/23/2022 and previous data.
Click full screen on movie below and view.
M31 movie shows resolution captured with just an 80mm refractor zoomed in to background SC Galaxy PGC 90494/ 2MFGC511
M31-Andromeda Galaxy By: Sam Pitts 10/23/2022 10:03 PM Latitude: 33° 29′ 01.48″ North Longitude: 116° 43′ 19.24″ West Elevation: 4321 feet; Jupiter Ridge #4 Observatory, OCA site, near Anza, CA. Seeing: E Transparency: 5 SQM: 20.78 Bortle: 4 Telescopes / Optics: TMB 80mm f/6 @ f/ 4.8 384mm Mount: AP1200 Camera: SBIG ST10xme CFW10 (KAF3200) FOV: 133.4′ x 89.5′ Filter: L=135min (10 & 5 min) RGB =1.5 Hours (3x10min) Ha= 5x10min (50)-20°c Information: Captured with CCDSoft Processed: with CCDStack, Photoshop CS6 & PWP8 Total exposure time = 275min / 4 ½ hours NOTE: Data from 9/20/2009 included with new data taken 10/23/2022.