Gregg's Astronomy Page
Dome_at_night_4.jpg (7279 bytes)

Welcome to

Gregg's Astronomy Page

Albert L. Ruppel Observatory

Updated:  Sunday, May 06, 2012

New Images | Nebulae | Planetary Nebulae | Star Clusters | Galaxies | Solar System | Moon | Comets | Ha Images | Techniques | Getting Started in Astronomy | Links | About Me

New Image (5/6/2012)

Click for higher resolution

NGC 4725 Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices.   Spring is often considered 'galaxy season' among amateur astronomers because of the large number of galaxies visible in the night skyComa Berenices (Berenice's Hair) is a faint constellation that is home to a number of island universes.  NGC 4725 is a spiral galaxy about 41 million light-years distant.  This galaxy is unusual in that it appears to have just a single arm in its spiral that is tightly wound in several turns around the central bar. There also appears to be some galactic interaction with NGC 4747 (upper left).  For another view of NGC 4725 see the APOD of 6/6/2009My image was made on April 18-19, 2012 with LRGB integrations in the ratio of 120:30:30:30.  The data were acquired using CCD Commander with an STL11000 and ASA 10N on an AP900 GTO.  The images were stacked in MaximDL.   Final processing  was done in  Photoshop
 

 

This page illustrates what can be photographed using  amateur telescopes and a CCD camera.  I currently use an SBIG STL11000M camera and have previously used a SBIG and Starlight Xpress cameras, as well as a Cookbook 245 camera that I built myself. Most of the images were actually taken from my backyard near a busy street with several street lights. Not only is the CCD camera a great imaging tool, but it allows "real time" observation of objects not normally visible in areas with moderate-severe light pollution.

Visitor   ida_logo.gif (9871 bytes) International Dark Sky Association 

 

 

                                    All text and images © Gregg L. Ruppel 1998-2012.