[APML] OT: CCD images of M65/M66/NGC3628 area with Asteroid,extra spiral arms in M66?

["Richard Crisp" <rdcrisp@earthlink.net>]

Last night wasn't scheduled to be a good observing night according to
the usual sources (NWS, Clear Sky Clocks etc). But it looked to me
like there was a chance of clearing so I set up my imaging gear
anyway.

By dark it was getting cloudier and cloudier, having looked pretty
good only an hour before. Still I was reluctant to take things apart;
it was still pretty early.

Around 8pm it was clear, so I went to work on the Leo Trio.

The seeing was better than average, I was getting about 3.5 arc-sec
stars during focus runs. Usually they are bit bigger from my backyard.

Because it was so transparent, the moon didn't bother me too much,
which is good because I was not using narrowband filters (straight
LRGB for the galaxies last night).

I racked up 4 hours and 10 minutes of total exposure time. I used my
AP155EDF scope and SBIG ST10XME camera. I had my AP80mm guide scope
piggybacked atop and guided with an ST7E.

http://www.rdcrisp.darkhorizons.org/m65_trio_page.htm


This Galaxy imaging is pretty fun. I still like big nebulae better,
but this is galaxy season now, so it is time to get into them again.

This was also the first time I have used Russ Croman's Sigma Reject
Plugin for Maxim DL. It is a lot more convenient to use a plugin than
a standalone program for sigma combining as I have been doing for the
past two years. So far the convenience factor is really high, so I
will be trying it on some more images. Thank you, Russ, for making a very
nice program that is easier to use than the standalone alternative.

The LRGB filters are not so bad after all. I might even get to like
them once I get used to them again.

Later on this morning I saw a posting by Roy Cummings stating that there was
an
asteroid in the area of M65/M66 last night, 940 Kordula. I took another look
at my data and discovered that I had captured it in my image sequence.

I reprocessed and assembled all the luminance and color data into one
monochrome image to show the path of the asteroid over the course of the
evening. During the nearly five hours I was taking data, I got a reasonable
track of the asteroid.

http://www.rdcrisp.darkhorizons.org/940_kordula_page.htm

Another thing worth noting in the shot with the Asteroid, are the spiral
arms of M66. I see a very faint pair of spiral arms at the 2 oclock position
of M66. One is close in and has a bright star toward the end. Slightly
higher and further out is another faint spiral arm, fainter than the first,
at a slightly larger radius and also ending with a bright star at the end.

I'm not sure how often that second spiral arm shows up, I had not noticed it
before.


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