Messier 74 - The Phantom Galaxy - 2019 version
Date: Oct 21, 2019
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0014
Messier 74 - the Phantom Galaxy (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
M74 is a two-armed spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces that is located 32 million light-years away. With its prominent two arms, M74 is considered a classic spiral galaxy form. Having the second lowest surface brightness of all of the objects in the Messier list (M101 being the lowest), this guy is tough to observe visually.
About the Project
It proved to be a challenge for me as well. Skies were pretty dark last night, and this image was the result of 64 frames of 180 seconds each - for a total integration time of 3.2 hours - the longest integration I have done yet. This is also the first image for a new scope configuration. I added a top plate to the tube assembly and moved the guide scope to that. This allowed me to add a Pegasus Astro Systems Pocket Powerbox then - this provides power to all devices as well as to two heater straps which are now wrapped around the objectives of the main and guide scopes to prevent dew formation.
This is a pretty smart setup as it includes a temperature/humidity sensor and only powers the heaters when the condition hits the dew point. I also added a USB 3.0 hub to handle all USB routings for the two cameras, the focus motor, the power box.
This config worked well for me (no dew!) - but Is still need to clean up the cabling. If I get a chance will add photos of the new config.
Comments on 08/01/21 as this was added to the Website:
Hmmm. Where do I start. Early on I was convinced that space was black, so the best thing to do was to clip the sky to black! Non! Non! Non.
On top of that, I boosted the contrast in the image so much to bring up the galaxy arms that they look weird and unnatural - and I blasted out the stars in the process so that they are clipped on the high end and have a very little color.
It hurts going back through these old images. What was I thinking!.
The Annotated Image
This annotated image of M74 was created by using Pixinsight’s ImageSolver and AnnotateImage Scripts.
The Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Map of Pisces - with M74 marked by the yellow arrow.
More Information
Wikipedia: Messier 74
The Sky Live: Messier 74
Capture Details
Light frames
64 x 180 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain
Total of 3.2 hours.
Cal Frames
Not recorded
Capture Hardware
Scope: Astrophysics 130mm Starfire F/8.35 APO Scope: William Optics 132mm f/7.0 FLT APO
Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61EDPHII
Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-pro with ZWO Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, editor regret and much swearing….
During August and September I was out shooting every clear night. I had learned a lot of things but I was also noticing several issues that were causing me problems as I did more imaging. I decided to do something to address those issues….