Galaxies are vast collections of millions upon billions of stars in a huge gravitational dance. Galaxies are quite far away and yet some can be seen with the naked eye on a clear dark night away from city lights. Galaxies also are grouped onto very large scale structures called clusters and super clusters that resemble a string of pearls scattered across the immense reaches of open space.

The dynamics of galactic formation and distribution through space are active areas of research that shed light on the foundation and evolution of human understanding of the universe.

All of these images were taken through a 10 inch F4.5 Newtonian reflecting telescope .

Coyote Lake August 10, 2002. I bagged NGC7331 & NGC7640 with SBIG ST10XME.

My favorite is M51, a pair of galaxies in a slow motion massive collision. Taken at Sea Ranch on July 3, 1998.

M74 in Pisces is a nice spiral that is also easy to find. Taken at Mt. Diablo August 21, 1999.

NGC 7331, NEW! and friends, in Pegasus was very fun to image. If you look close you will see some other galaxies. There are five or six more galaxies in the same field of view but they are too dim or too small to clearly see in this image. I can't find exact matches in TheSky level 5 for all the suspected galazies so any other info would be greatfully appreciated! The image is a stack of 16x2minute IR blocked exposures taken with ICX085AL based camera. Processing was dark and bias corrected but no flat, there is a slight DDP. Taken at CALSTAR on October 1, 2000 around 1 am Pacific.
 

IC342NEW Color!My attempts at color are just beginning, so of course, I choose a difficult and mostly color less object! This galaxy was practically invisible to the eye through a 25 inch dob so I'm amazed that I could even find it at all! This is a LCMY stack of 18x3 minute L and 3 minute each CMY with a ICX085AL based camera. Taken at CALSTAR October 1, 2000 around 2am Pacific.

NGC 891 shows a prominent dust lane right down the middle! . Taken at Henry Coe SP October 2, 1999.

M33 is a very big galaxy and this image only shows about a third of the whole. . Taken at Mt. Diablo August 21, 1999.

NGC 1232 is another example of a pair of colliding galaxies. Taken at Pachecho SP October 9, 1999.

NGC 1300 is an excellent example of a barred spiral galaxy. Taken at Pachecho SP October 9, 1999.

NGC 7479 is a nice barred spiral. Taken at Pachecho SP October 9, 1999.

NGC 7606 taken at Pachecho SP October 9, 1999.
 

Images from Plettstone Observatory and environs:
M108 in Ursa Major is an edge on spiral at magnitude 10.7.
 

M109 in Ursa Major is one of my favorites. There are two other galaxies in this image, UGC 6923 at magnitude 13.9 in the lower left and UGC6940 at magnitude 16.7 is the small smudge in the left center. This image is a composite of 10x1 minute exposures.

M33, the Pinwheel galaxy in Triangulum clearly shows active star forming regions.

M81 in Ursa Major shows great spiral structure! 7x1 minute exposures.

M82 right next to M81 is composed of 6x1 minute exposures.

NGC 891 is another one of my favorites. 5x1 minute exposures.
 
 

Last updated October 2, 2000..