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| The Leo Triplet of Galaxies |
This Saturday January 21st was or members observing night at my local astronomy club. Only myself and one other member attended because of cold weather and a lot of cloud cover. After setting up my gear at sundown, it wasn't until 3:30am that the clouds finally parted! I started out by capturing light on M80 and M81, but because of its difficult position in the sky, and some technical difficulties, my fellow club member recommended that I try imaging the Leo Triplet. I was able to capturing over about 1.5 hours on this subject, and I am very happy to have imaged this on such a cold, cloudy January night!
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY DETAILS:
(Leo Triplet)
35 x 165" ISO 1600
For a total of 1 hour 36 minutes
Stacked with dark, bias and flats
ES ED80 Apo Triplet
ASCG-5 GT
Orion Mini Guidescope
Meade DSI II
Canon 450d unmodded
Stacked in DSS
Processed in PS CS5
The photo on the left is me sitting in the warm room between camera/computer adjustments trying to keep warm. The photo on the right is an example of how the clouds were teasing us with brief, beautiful views of the stars between 5pm - 2am
