Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy, or M31, is one of the most photographed deep sky object of the northern skies. It’s the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way (2.5 millions light years) of comparable size, they are expected to collide in around 5 billion years. The image is a two-panels mosaic in Read more…

One of the most iconic galaxies of the season in the northern hemisphere, the M51 or Whirpool Galaxy, is a magnificent spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. The Whirpoool Galaxy interacts with the companion NGC 5195 in a binary system with marked dust lanes that surround the two objects. Read more…

One of the most iconic galaxies of winter skies in the Northern Hemisphere. The “Sunflower” is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici, with a bright central disc and a number of short spiral arm segments dotted with starburst regions and dust lanes. The image is the result Read more…

M101 the “Pinwheel galaxy” is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. This is the first image with the new setup (CFF135 telescope +AP1100 + QHY268M), I am impressed with the level of details the CFF was able to resolve in the galaxy despite the small scale and the Read more…

The M96 Group, also known as Leo I Group, is a group of galaxies in the constellation Leo including M95, M96 and M105. M95and M96 are two spiral galaxies with marked star-forming regions. 5.3 hrs total integration in LRGB (2:1:1:1) combined with 2 hrs Ha to enhance the emission regions Read more…

The spiral galaxies M65, M66 and NGC 3628 represent a very well known small group of galaxies in the constellation of Leo. Because of the different orientation to Earth, only M65 and M66 reveal the spiral arms to a terrestrial observation, while NGC 3628 shows its typical “hamburger” shape. A Read more…

Fireworks Galaxy, a spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, located between the boundaries of the the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. The frame shows the surrounding dust nebulosity and the globular cluster NGC6939 The image is the result of 14 hours of integration of L (470x60s) R/G/B (130x60s each) Full resolution image here Processing details Read more…

M106 or NGC4258 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its peculiarity is the presence of nuclear water “masers” of galactic scale that provide the distinct purple arm colors. This is also a very special image as it is the last target I shot with the ASI1600MM before I retired the Read more…