Bode's & Cigar Galaxies
This is a zoomed on to 100% of this photo: Bode’s Galaxy Group
It was taken in April 2020 in Sweden with my astro modified DSLR camera from 2007 and a 600mm photo lens with a tracker mounted between the (normal) photo tripod and the camera!
The astro modification is essentially just a removal of the built-in UV/IR-filter glued onto the front of the sensor – this modification makes the camera more sensitive to the faint red Hydrogen-Alpha wavelengths of light (visible in both Bode’s and Cigar galaxies).
The tracker follows the night sky as it “turns” due to the rotation of Earth – without it the image would be some uninteresting stratrails (lines in the sky).
Distances to visible galaxies in this photo:
M82 (Bode’s Galaxy): 11.42 million light years
M81 (Cigar Galaxy): 11.74 million light years
The images were taken over 3 nights on 22-24 April 2020 and processed in PixInsight with most weighting on images from the the 22th
More photo details:
Stugan, Elovsbyn, Värmland, Sweden
April 2020 @ 5°C
Tracker: iOptron SkyGuider Pro
Mount: Manfrotto MT055 XPRO3 Alu
Head: Manfrotto MHXPRO-BHQ2 Magnesium Ball Head
Lights: 35x5min
Bias: 90 subs
Darks: 60×5 min
Flats: 188 subs