Galaxies from spring of 2025

A backlog of mediocre production.  I was out 18 times between January and July.  Here's a smattering of 5 random ones.  Other's are here:

• Google Photos = https://photos.app.goo.gl/rW21YSiQb7yGnBzd6

• https://imgur.com/a/LbziC

 

Makemake, minor planet with designation 136472

1st, Rick and Morty fan here and I never realized that Makemake is literally birdperson!  

I was able to find this new edition to the dwarf planet list after I had already setup and started looking for targets.  I searched for it in the Minor Planet center to find it's RA/DEC and Mag were within reach of my scope.  Unlike main belt targets, 'distant objects' don't move fast enough for me to see motion against background stars in ~1hr, so I hit it up next clear night 3 days later.  I was amazed at how bright it is for my setup, which can go down to 19-20mag pretty easily.

Motion over 2 nights, 3 days apart!

https://astromikephillips.wixsite.com/home/makemake 

Makemake is the creator of humanity and the god of fertility in the mythology of the South Pacific island of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. He was the chief god of the Tangata manu bird-man cult and was worshiped in the form of sea birds, which were his incarnation. His material symbol was a man with a bird's head. [Ref: Minor Planet Circ. 63395]

(136472) Makemake = 2005 FY9

Discovered at Palomar on 2005-03-31 by M. E. Brown, C. A. Trujillo, and D. L. Rabinowitz.

(136472) Makemake = 2005 FY9

From <https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=136472> 

A worthy read to learn more about dwarf planets and the reclassification of Pluto that I recommend is:

Author Michael E. Brown

Language English

Publication date 2010

Publication place United States

ISBN 0-385-53108-7

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Killed_Pluto_and_Why_It_Had_It_Coming> 

Unprocessed Mars until May of 2025!

 Just notes, nothing fancy....

Did collimation in West for jove, did stellar collimation but rushed and incomplete but 3/5Seeing..

Moved to East for Mars and seems to have held collimation, see other star test!  Never before

Whale Galaxy in LRGB

I couldn't be more thrilled with how this turned out! As a novice, every image I capture feels like a milestone, and this one is no exception. With just 80 minutes of integration and only a couple of 5-minute subs for color, the galaxy already reveals stunning details. The structure and glow make it a target I know I'll revisit in the future. It's incredible to think that light from this distant world traveled across the cosmos for millions of years, only to end up in my telescope. Moments like these remind me why I love astrophotography—it's a chance to connect with the universe in a way I never imagined possible.

 ...and HD sized crop!

Galaxies Galore with Abell 2199

 

Checking for target while imaging, as I nearly always do, I spied a tiny galaxy in a pretty dark portion of the sky, NGC6166. 

Solved with annotations

 While processing this portion of our universe I spied galaxies: NGC6166, UGC10404, PGC058277, NGC6158 and SDSS J162915.46+392226.4.  The latter of which is listed as a galaxy with these measured values

Radial velocity / Redshift / cz : V(km/s) 83829 [54] / z(spectroscopic) 0.33279 [0.00018] / cz 99768.0 [54.0]

And RA/DEC of

16 29 15.462 +39 22 26.41

Per

https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%406143502&Name=SDSS%20J162915.46%2b392226.4&submit=submit

Running the calculations via Microsoft Copilot AI, it gave me a distance of 3.9 Billion LY!!

if the rv = 83829 what is the distance in millions of light years?

Let's calculate the approximate distance using the Hubble's Law, which states:

[ D = \frac{V}{H_0} ]

where:

• ( D ) is the distance in megaparsecs (Mpc),

• ( V ) is the radial velocity (here, 83,829 km/s),

• ( H_0 ) is the Hubble constant, typically around 70 km/s/Mpc (but exact value varies based on cosmological models).

Step 1: Convert radial velocity to distance in Mpc

[ D = \frac{83829}{70} \approx 1197 \text{ Mpc} ]

Step 2: Convert Mpc to millions of light-years

Since 1 Mpc ≈ 3.26 million light-years, we get:

[ D (\text{millions of light-years}) = 1197 \times 3.26 ]

[ \approx 3905 \text{ million light-years} ]

So, the object is roughly 3.9 billion light-years away! Keep in mind that this is a simplified estimate based on the Hubble Law; more precise distances depend on detailed cosmological models. Let me know if you'd like to explore those too!

Here's the closeup measured and found in ASTAP

Little Pinwheel Galaxy

 Just over 1hr of only Lum, this one really surprised me!  I just find interesting targets and shoot as I go and am happy to revisit this with a new camera, more time and color!!!!

Sunflower Galaxy

 

Just searching for targets and this came up by name, a target I've already hit, in M63.  Just practice for the most part.  No asteroids or comets nearby and the guiding didn't lock for half of the planned time!  :(

Enjoy