M62 - Globular Star Cluster

Messier 62 is located in the southern constellation of Ophiuchus. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. It lies at a distance of about 22,000 light years from earth and has a diameter is 110 light years. Its estimated mass is one million solar masses and it contains over 200 variable stars. In 2013, astronomers discovered a stellar-mass black hole in M62, one of the first to ever be found in a globular cluster.

M62 - May 21, 2021
Celestron EdgeHD11 f/10 and ASI2600mm camera
20x30sec RGB subs and 33x30sec Lum

With a Declination of -30 degrees, this was a difficult object for me to capture as it never gets more than 25 degrees above the southern horizon and I have very limited view in that direction to boot. I wanted to capture at least 40-60 luminance subs, but with the limited view and not very ideal weather conditions I settled for only 33 good ones to go with the 20 RGB subs.

This one deserves much better treatment (and longer integration time) but it is on my list for the M110 award at TSS and I don't want to wait another year to complete that contest.

NGC 6229 - Globular Cluster in Hercules

NGC 6229 is a very distant globular star cluster in the constellation Hercules. At about 100,000 light years away it is one of the furthest clusters from earth (that is, cluster in our galaxy) sitting at the very edge of our Milky Way. The Stellarium planetarium software identifies it as the "Prize Comet Globular Cluster" - possibly because of its distance, and hence small size, it would look like a faint comet head in smaller amateur telescopes.

NGC 6229 - May 21, 2021
EdgeHD-11 f/10 ZWO ASI2600mm
30x30sec RGB; 60x60sec Lum

This image was taken with a 9.8 day old moon blaring in the west and cirrus clouds covering most of the sky. Not ideal conditions, but whenever you get a mostly clear night here in Maryland you try to take advantage of the opportunity as best as you can. Globulars are ideal for image objects in these conditions as they tend to hold up well to the sky brightness and LP. 

The Lunar-X

While testing out the new adjustments I made to my mount software and camera hardware, I took a quick image of the moon. Wasn't really interested in keeping them, they were just for testing focus points, But then I noticed that I had captured the famous Lunar-X (and Y). They are optical features on the moon, visible when the moon’s terminator, the position between light and dark on the moon, is located in just the right place, you can see what appears to be the letters "X" and "Y". A serendipitous capture, I post-processed a single frame and posted here.

Lunar X and Y
EdgeHD-11; ASI2600; 0.002 seconds f/10
May 18, 2021 - 8:10 PM

Close up

For more information on the Lunar-X see the article in EarthSky.

The Blowdryer Galaxy (M100)

No, I didn't name this galaxy. It is one of the popular names for M100. But it does look a little bit like a blowdryer.

Names aside, this is one of the Messier objects on my list to image. I'm trying to get the final Messier Award, the M110 Award, for photographing all 110 Messier objects. With eleven more to go it may be a challenge to complete the series this season if the weather doesn't cooperate soon. 

This image of M100, also known as NGC 4321, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices. One of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster, it is 55 million light years from earth, and spans 107,000 light years across.

Taken over two nights, May 1 and 2, 2021, it was a difficult imaging run as clouds interfered throughout both nights - more than half of the exposures had to be discarded because of either low signal (clouds) or equipment failure. My new Off Axis Guider is giving me fits trying to get the image focused sufficiently for the guide system. But I'll get it sorted out someday :) It was, nonetheless, a good test of my new camera, the ZWO ASI2600mm Pro. 

M100 - May 1 and 2, 2021
EdgeHD11 2800mm f/10, ASI2600 Camera
LRGB 3.2 hrs total integration
Full details at: Astrobin