NGC 4565 - Coma Berenices

Object data: NGC 4565 in the constellation of Coma Berenices is a relatively bright (magnitude 9.6), large galaxy, noteworthy for its spectacular appearance caused by the angle of the galactic plane being almost precisely edge-on as seen from the earth. NGC 4565 was discovered by William Herschel in 1785 and is estimated to be 31 million light years distant. Date: 29/03/01 Location: Southern France Conditions: Breezy, transparency=6, seeing=4 Optics: Ritchey-Chretien 12.5" f/9 (from RCOS) Mount: AP 900 GTO on Portable Pier Camera: SBIG ST-8E / CFW-8 Guiding: ST-4 via custom OAG (designed by Chuck Vaughn) Exposure: LRGB: Luminance: 7x10 minutes; RGB: 10:10:20 minutes binned 2x2 Processing: Image acquisition and initial processing was done using Maxim DL, subsequent processing was done using Registar and Photoshop. Notes: Conditions were not good for this shot - there was a lot of movement in the air and seeing was very poor (around 5 arc seconds) and is below the quality I would normally like to display. However it is still an improvement on a four year old shot taken with my former 10" LX200. This is from a batch of first light images using the new RCOS 12.5" and the new ST-8E, and is also one of my first CCD images.