Date/time: May 28, 2009 11:15pm
Location: Victoria Center Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada

These two colliding galaxies are part of Markarian's Chain in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.

This resultant photo was created from a stack of experimental images. John McDonald and I were testing the tracking accuracy of the Paramount ME. At 8 minutes exposure time, the stars became noticably egg-shaped, however these images taken using 4 minutes exposure time result in acceptable star shapes. Future adjustments to the mount should eliminate this small polar alignment error.

Camera: Unmodified Canon 50D dSLR mounted prime focus
Telescope: Meade LX200 14" SCT operating at f/10, mounted on a Paramount ME
Guiding: Orion Starshoot guider mounted on a 4" piggybacked refractor using PHD software
Exposure: 4 minutes
Frames: 17 taken and used
ISO: 1600

Processing:

• ImagesPlus 3.75: raw digital development, dark frames applied, no flat or bias frames applied; auto alignment; stacking (Sigma Average =3.00); aggressive digital development (BP 1,458)
• NeatImage Pro - auto noise reduction
• ACDSee Pro 2.5 Photo Manager: 48 bit to 24 bit RGB conversion; crop; size reduction