From: "milton_aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: March 9, 2010 7:46:04 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Leo Galaxy NGC 2903


Hi Mark;


Thanks for the ID on UGC 5086 (or PGC 27115) near NGC 2903. Not much details on it if you search online, other than it's really faint (about Mag 15.7).


The one for M53 doesn't appear to show up in your snapshot. I marked the faint fuzzy I noticed here:


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/Other/M53_Marked.jpg


as "Unknown".


You do have one showing near it, but it's below the one I was interested in and appears to be the one I marked as "Yours".


Yahoo reduces the size of all photos, so I can't identify the number in your screen snap shot.


Thanks for your help..


Milton Aupperle

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@...> wrote:


Hi Milton,

Both Voyager (which I now have the full version of-since earlier in  

the year) & ST3 Pro appear to list that fuzzy in the NGC 2903 image as  

UGC 5086 or PGC 27115. There is an object shown closer still to NGC  

2903 though. I`m not sure exactly what you`re speaking about in the M  

53 image but I`ll post a couple of snapshots from Voyager to  

Photos..There are a number of objects around M 53, one quite close...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/photos/album/1710518579/pic/list


HTH.. Mark.

On 10/03/2010, at 10:27 AM, milton_aupperle wrote:


Hi Folks;


Here is Leo Galaxy NGC 2903


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/DSO/NGC2903_MJA_20100305.jpg


taken on March 5th. I managed to catch the faint sweeping arms and a  

weak companion galaxy (well it might be a companion, or it could be  

just a faint background galaxy too). I haven't been able to find out  

what it is for a designation yet.


C8 @ 1150 mm, Grasshopper, six 1x1 15 min luma frames, 3 each binned  

2x2 of 6 m red, 4 min green and 3 min blue with Astrodon filters.  

Even with a Hutech IDAS LPR filter and my sky background is 16,000  

ADU. Seeing was not really good during this period, about +/- 5 arc  

seconds. It was better for the Eskimo nebula and then better again  

for M64.


I discovered my mount is now very slightly out of polar alignment,  

so I had some field rotation issues to deal with for processing. One  

leg of the tripod is out on a piece of brick resting on the dirt/ 

grass, so that I can view a bit higher up (80+°). The back two legs  

are on the concrete patio:


http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Scope02.jpg


Apparently when the snow melted the ground shifted a small amount  

and threw things off. It's only a + 0.2° rotation over 105 minutes,  

but that shifts about 6 pixels and causes a major headache for doing  

the LRGB aligns. That's also why stars on the left side are more  

elongate than the right side are.


PS: There is also a small "faint fuzzy" in the M53 image I posted  

yesterday south of the Globular Cluster. I have not found any info  

on it, but have seen it in other older (2002) amateur images so it's  

not something new. I'll have to re-shoot with 15 to 20 minute  

exposure to see what it is.


TTYL..


Milton Aupperle