M95

RA: 10hrs 44min 00secs      Dec: 11º 42' 00"    Mag: 9.7   Distance: 30 million light years   Constellation: Leo

This picture was taken on the same night as M105 also in Leo.  There were no clouds but there was a haze in the sky which caught the glow of sodium lights from the nearby A34 motorway as well as the lights of Abingdon.  The moon was new.  M95 is classed as an SBb spiral galaxy just like it's companion M96.  Both were discovered by Méchain in 1781.

This photo was taken at f6.3 and is the result of a stack of 4 images created by Envisage from 21.2 second exposures as follows, 22 x 21.2, 24x, 28x and 29x making a cumulative exposure time of just over 36 minutes.  Stacking of the 4 images was carried out in Maxim DL as usual .  Main problems with this photo was the bright sky background (no light pollution filter) consisting of an orange glow.  The main area of diffuse nebulosity arising from the galaxy itself was carefully selected out with a feather of 40 pixels and then the background darkened using the curves command for the Red and Green channel which were greatly in excess of the blue channel.  The galaxy core and the two most prominent stars were blocked with a layer mask during midtone enhancement to prevent over-exposure and 'blooming'.  Darkening of the sky background, unfortunately, resulted in loss of the fainter stars in the background .  The perennial problem of the vertical drift of the object during polar tracking persists - I haven't found a solution to it yet, and the Meade forum have ignored my e-mails of inquiry.    This is preventing me from taking really long exposures.

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