Observation by David Davies: Arp 269, NGC 4490, The Cocoon Galaxies

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2022 Jun 01 - 00:52

Uploaded

2022 Jun 09 - 08:58

Objects

The Cocoon Galaxy (NGC4490)
Arp 269
NGC4485

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Constellation

Canes Venatici

Field centre

RA: 12^h30^m
Dec: +41°39'
Position angle: -1°01'

Field size

0°23' × 0°17'

Equipment

200mm Ritchey Chretien
ASI 294MC Pro
SW EQ8

Exposure

40 x 2-min

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

Arp 269, NGC 4490, The Cocoon Galaxies

Title

Arp 269, NGC 4490, The Cocoon Galaxies

About this image

A few weeks ago, I discovered a queen wasp building a nest in the tube of my RC8 scope. The nest was about the size of a golf ball, it looked quite lovely but also alarming. Once I removed it, I then discovered quantities of wasp poo on both the primary and secondary mirrors. This necessitated complete dismantling of the telescope and washing of both mirrors - with the fingertips in warm water, one drop of washing up liquid, then rinse in distilled water and allowed to dry.

I then rebuilt and recollimated the scope.

This image, taken on June 1st, is a test of the reconstructed scope. I could get only 90 minutes of usable data as the sky was not truly dark, giving a troublesome gradient - thus the dark background.

Scope RC8 (cleaned), Camera ASI 294MC Pro, 40 x 2 min subs.

Files associated with this observation

Arp269.jpg (1.1 MB)

Like this image

Callum Potter, Martin Lewis, Paul Downing, Richard Sargent, Alan Thomas

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