M99

M99: Spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices.

Messier: 99
NGC: 4254
Right Ascension: 12h 18.8m
Declination: 14° 25'
Apparent Magnitude: 9.8

Date: June 2010
Equipment:
Telescope: Meade 16" Schmidt Cassegrain with f6.3 reducer
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE
Guiding: AO-8

Exposure: 10x5 minutes luminance. Mix of binning 1x1 and 2x2.
Processing Notes: Data acquisition with CCDSoft. Reduced and aligned in CCDStack. Subs combined in Sigma Beta. Arcsine stretch import into Photoshop. Adjusted curves and levels.
Scale: 1.15"/pixel

Links to images of this object on other sites:
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/m99.html

Additional Comments: This is the first light image with the AO-8 "adaptive optics" autoguider used with the ST-10XE. This was a new configuration of the camera, so a couple of the sub-frames ended up with "odd" flats. The blemish in the upper left is from an internal scope reflection of the very bright star in the lower right. A 2008 RGB image of M99 can be found here: http://www.fortlewis.edu/observatory/image_detail.asp?ID=96

Views: 3800