Messier 77 - Squid Galaxy
Messier 77 (M77), also known as NGC 1068 or the Squid Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It is about 47 million light-years away from Earth. One supernova has been detected in Messier 77, named SN 2018ivc.
October 6, 2024
Another night of tossed frames, but finally enough data to process this one. I probably had the scope on this object for twice the amount of time as data I have collected. Still working through guiding problems. Last night the wind was calm and I still had guiding issues, so I’m going to keep tinkering with guiding until I can find the right recipe to stop losing so much data. I wouldn’t mind tossing 30-60 mins of subs, but I’ve been tossing about half my subframes per night (about 4 hours worth!), which has been very frustrating to say the least. I can’t seem to nail down the root cause of the issues... I’m re-calibrating guiding each night. I tried moving from 1-1.5s second exposures. RA and Dec aggression is set to 20%. Tonight I’ll try adjusting the exposures up to 2” to reduce seeing effects and adjusting the calibration step upward a little bit to see if that helps.
Technical Details
Imaging Telescope: Orion Optics IDEAL 8
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filter: Antlia Tri-band RGB Ultra Filter - 2” Mounted
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop, NoiseXterminator, Starnet, BlurXterminator
Guiding Telescope: SVBony SV106 60mm Guide Scope
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Imaging Dates: Oct. 1-3 & 5, 2024
Frames (gain 101.0) f/4.9 -10c: 170x180” (8h30m)
Integration Time: 8h30m
Darks/Flats/Dark Flats: 30/30/30
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00