Pinwheel Galaxy - 2021/02/16

[JimFox]

I captured this a week ago out in Death Valley. I had a bit of a moon to deal with, but not much. My biggest issue was the wind. I parked my Jeep in such a way to use it as a wind break to try and limit the amount of wind hitting it, but the wind would gust into the 20 to 30mph range. So it probably wasn't smart to even try and capture anything but I had the Astro Itch and needed to try.

I was running 60 sec subs on this, and of the 45 images I captured I could only use 22 as the rest all had some movement in them as the wind gusted periodically.

I found it cool that it appears there are 2 more galaxies in this image? I am not sure as I couldn't find them on my sky mapping software, if anyone knows what they are, please share.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

Nikon D850 - not modded
Tamron 150-600mm @ 500mm
SkyGuider Pro
22 lights @ 60 seconds, ISO 3200 f6.3
8 Darks @ 60 seconds, ISO 3200 f6.3
Edited in DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop

 

[chuckp]

I captured this a week ago out in Death Valley. I had a bit of a moon to deal with, but not much. My biggest issue was the wind. I parked my Jeep in such a way to use it as a wind break to try and limit the amount of wind hitting it, but the wind would gust into the 20 to 30mph range. So it probably wasn't smart to even try and capture anything but I had the Astro Itch and needed to try.

I was running 60 sec subs on this, and of the 45 images I captured I could only use 22 as the rest all had some movement in them as the wind gusted periodically.

I found it cool that it appears there are 2 more galaxies in this image? I am not sure as I couldn't find them on my sky mapping software, if anyone knows what they are, please share.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

Nikon D850 - not modded
Tamron 150-600mm @ 500mm
SkyGuider Pro
22 lights @ 60 seconds, ISO 3200 f6.3
8 Darks @ 60 seconds, ISO 3200 f6.3
Edited in DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop

View attachment 36691

Nice shot Jim! You did great on the processing. The galaxy up in the right top is NGC 5474 and the one right under is NGC 5477

 

[Yervant]

Excellent. This is on my list as well as soon as clear skies come along. Lately, it seems when we have clear skies it coincides with a really bright Moon. Just can't win here in the Northeast.

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice result.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Excellent

 

[Mike Lewis]

Cool image of one of the nicest galaxies to image in the night sky. Here is what I can say about the other galaxies in the image you mention:

The fuzzy in the upper right corner is NGC 5474, a peculiar galaxy and local partner to M101. The core of this galaxy is off center, a sure sign of a gravitational interaction with M101.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5474

The other one I think I can make out in your image is NGC 5477, a dwarf galaxy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5477

I think there is a 3rd too in your frame, but I have not been able to indentify that one yet.

 

[JimFox]

Nice shot Jim! You did great on the processing. The galaxy up in the right top is NGC 5474 and the one right under is NGC 5477

Thanks so much Chuck! I appreciate the info on those other galaxies. I have captured the pinwheel galaxy a couple of times now, but just never noticed them before.

 

[Alisa]

So cool!

 

[JimFox]

Excellent. This is on my list as well as soon as clear skies come along. Lately, it seems when we have clear skies it coincides with a really bright Moon. Just can't win here in the Northeast.

Thank you Yervant.

I was surprised how easy Pinwheel is to capture. It's kind of small, but it's pretty bright. I love Andromeda, but I wanted to be able to capture other Galaxies, and Pinwheel was one of them.