NGC 5394/5395 will challenge you

[oopfan]

One month ago I came across this "NASA APOD" image:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200304.html

I looked it up in planetarium software (C2A) and saw that it was a mere 2 arc-minutes in size. That's quite a challenge for my 418mm refractor but hey I'm a glutton for punishment.

I decided to use my CMOS Altair 290M with a pixel size of 2.9 microns instead of my CCD Atik 314E with 4.65 microns because I figured that it is better to over-sample than under-sample with such a small object.

A clear night finally arrived. I captured 239x 30-second subs. Well, right away it was clear I had problems as you can see in the attached image.

Let me sum it up this way:
I may be a glutton for punishment attempting to capture this small galaxy but you guys and gals are masochists using CMOS. Not only do you have to contend with Gain and Offset but also MONO8 versus MONO12. CCD is so much easier!

As it turned out the reason why the image quality is so poor is that someway, somehow it recorded in MONO8 mode.

Anyhow this is a very cool galaxy pair. This would be a great challenge for those of you with your long focal length telescopes and $2000 CMOS cameras.

Technically it is in Canes Venatici but closer to Bootes at RA 13:58:38 and DEC +37:25:31.

Brian

[turfpit]

Brian

That certainly is a tricky target!

Coincidentally, this object is featured in the May edition of Astronomy Now magazine (a UK Astro mag). The pair are known as the Heron Galaxy (Arp 84). The figures are staggering - a 140,000 light year diameter object is starting to merge with a 90,000 light year diameter object.

Dave

[mAnKiNd]

Nice one Brian!

[Menno555]

Challenge accepted!
Long focal length: yes. 8" f/10 with 0.62x reducer.
Fancy camera: no. Zwo ASI385MC. CMOS but no cooling.

[oopfan]

Good luck! I am sure you will do better than me.

Brian