The Andromeda galaxy, M31, with M32 and M110
Face on spiral galaxy M33
The Whirlpool galaxy M51
Spiral galaxy M61
Spiral galaxy M63 - the Sunflower galaxy
Spiral galaxy M64 - the Black-eye galaxy
Galaxies M65 and M66
Spiral galaxy M74
Spiral galaxy M81
Edge on disrupted galaxy M82
Spiral galaxy M94
Face on barred spiral galaxy M95
Spiral galaxy M99
Spiral galaxy M100
Face-on spiral galaxy M101
Inclined spiral galaxy M106
Spiral galaxy M109
M110 with a globular cluster attached to M31
Edge on spiral galaxy NGC891
Spiral galaxy NGC2903
Galaxy NGC2976
Spiral galaxy NGC3184
Spiral galaxy NGC3628
Edge on spiral galaxy NGC4565
Edge on spiral galaxy NGC5907
Inclined spiral galaxy NGC6503
Spiral galaxy NGC6946
NGC7320+others - Stephan's Quintet
Spiral galaxy NGC7479
PC1247 - A very distant Quasar
A fine 8th magnitude spiral galaxy in Cane Venatici. This easy to locate spiral is easily located by star hopping and a good target for beginners. It is well placed for observing in June. Imaged by Kev Wildgoose with his 12" Newtonian and a Starlight MX916 camera with stacked 18x 30s exposures.
A 9th magnitude spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. This bright spiral makes a fine imaging target due to the large region of dust that gives it its name. It is well placed for observing in April. Imaged by Kev Wildgoose with his 12" Newtonian and a Starlight MX916 camera. He stacked 15x 30s exposures and then applied maximum entropy processing.
An impressive 7th magnitude spiral galaxy in Triangulum. This easy to locate spiral is actually not that easy to spot in larger scopes but responds well to large fields of view and low magnification. It is easily seen with binoculars and can (just) be seen from La Palma with the naked eye. It is well placed for observing in October.
The image on the left is by Grant Privett and David Briggs using the HAG 24" Newtonian and a Starlight MX916 camera. 3x 82 second exposures were stacked to create the view shown which is roughly 9' across. Limiting magnitude is probably around 19th despite the Moon located only 60 degrees away.
Placeholder only!! The image in the middle is by Ray Hollister and shows M33 when Comet Tuttle was passing by in??. He used a normal ?? camera with a ?? telescope. The exposure time was. Note the very distinct difference in colour between M33 and the comet.
The image on the right is by Kev Wildgoose. He used a 12" Newtonian with a Starlight MX916 camera. He created it by stacking 22x60s exposures. Sepetember 2007.
The large and low surface brightness face-on spiral in Pisces that has brought so many Messier Marathons to a juddering halt. Taken using an MX916 camera and a 12" Newtonian by Kev Wildgoose. It is was created from 20x60s exposures.
NGC5907 in Draco. This easy to locate edge on spiral appeared as a thin, brightish splinter of light in an 8" Newtonian. It passes nearly overhead in June. Imaged with a TC255 based 16-bit camera with 75x20s exposures.
NGC5907 is a spiral galaxy in Leo. Lying close to M65/M66 this 9th magnitude galaxy is suitable for smaller scopes. This image was taken by Kev Wildgoose using a 12" Newtonian and MX916 CCD camera.
Image of 11th magnitude galaxy NGC6946. This image was taken by Kev Wildgoose using a 12" Newtonian and MX916 CCD camera. He took 30x 60s exposures of the galaxy and coadded them. It would have been better but cloud stopped play. August 2007.
Image of the galaxy grouping known as Stephan's Quintet. The brightest of the galaxies is roughly 13 mag. The faintest 15th. NGC7320C is nearby and a 16.7 mag UGC galaxy lies in the field of view (see if you can spot it). Image taken by Wildgoose, Clayton-Jones, Privett using an MX916 and an 8" F4.5 Newtonian. October 2000.
Four images of the best know face on spiral galaxy as imaged by Simon Clayton-Jones, Kev Wildgoose, Peter Shah and Roy Hollister. Simon obtained 6x60 seconds exposures using an 8" F4.5 Newtonian and a TC255 camera. Kev used a 16" Newtonian and an MX916 and averaged several shots. Peter Shah used a Meade LX200, filters and a Starlight HX916
Roy Hollister used a 10" Newtonian and a Canon 350 using 8x 300s exposures.
Images taken by
Kev Wildgoose of the inclined spiral galaxies M65 and M66 in Leo.
M66 is shown on the right. Images March 2003. The images were
taken with an MX916 camera used in conjunction with a 12"
Newtonian and are created from 15 and 22x 30s exposures respectively.
The M65 image has been subjected to maximum entropy processing.
These bright galaxies are well worth a look and
detectable in binoculars in the same field of view.
One of the M81/M82 pair in Ursa Major. Both are worth a look even in the smallest scope.
The lefthand image was taken by Kev Wildgoose in 2005 with an MX916 camera used in conjunction with a 12" Newtonian. The image was created by averaging 9x 60 second frames.
The image on the right is by Steve Foulkes and Grant Privett using the society MX716, an LX200 12" and a 120s exposure.
The image in the middle was taken in 2007 using filters, an HX916 and an Orion OTA. The imager creating this lovely lrgb image was Peter Shah.
Another famous object, this time in Ursa Major.
Kev Wildgoose and Grant Privett took the picture on the left. Visually, it was elongated with hints of mottling. The image shown was constructed from 40 20s exposures taken with the 8" Newtonian. If pushed, the image shows the galaxy has quite a significantly larger semi-minor axis.
Simon Clayton-Jones took the image in the middle at a friend's house using his ETX on its little tripod resting on an ironing board. The image is constructed from 6 frames of 30s duration each. Not bad for a small scope. The odd thing is the star near the bright star on the right. It isnt on the Palomar Schmidt plates....
The right hand image was taken by Richard Pearce using a Canon 350 digital SLR and the F4.25 20" Newtonian telescope at COAA in the Algarve. Its a 120s exposure. Not the red of H-alpha emission.
This wonderfully detailed galaxy can be found lurking quite close by its better known neighbours ie M81/M82. This image is taken by Kev Wildgoose using his 12" Newtonian at F5.3 using 30 stacked 20s exposures with an MX916 camera. Well worth imaging.
An inclined spiral galaxy imaged by Kev Wildgoose using an MX916 CCD camera and his 12" Newtonian telescope.
False colour CCD image of M61 (10th mag and 4' diam). Taken by Kev Wildgoose, and Grant Privett during an SAS observing meeting. Exposure roughly 15 minutes. Images were degraded due to electrical interference. Spiral structure and HII regions can be seen.
The very splendid and large edge on spiral galaxy NGC4565 in Cane Venatici. Taken by Kev Wildgoose using a MX916 camera and his 12" reflector. To get this image he stacked 23x 30 second exposures. Note the sparse field and the faint galaxy nearby.
M99, a 10th magnitude spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. It was the second recognised to have a spiral structure by Lord Rosse. As imaged by Kev Wildgoose using his 16" Newtonian and a Starlight MX916 CCD camera on 26 April 2001. The image was created by stacking 6x 20s exposures.
An image of NGC3184 (11th mag and 5' diam) in Ursa Major. It was imaged by Kev Wildgoose using his 12" telescopes and a CCD. Some evidence of the barred spiral structure and HII regions can be seen.
Andromeda Galaxy
The magnificent Andromeda galaxy. Visible to the naked eye and binoculars, this galaxy straddles more than 3 degrees of sky. It is attended by 2 satellte galaxies M32 and M110. Note the dust lanes.
The picture on the left was taken by Simon Clayton-Jones in November 2000 using a Starlight MX516 camera with a £20 camera lens attached. The picture has not been flatfielded and the Peltier camera cooling was not working.
The picture in the middle was taken using a 135mm lens mounted piggyback on a 12" Newtonian used by Kev Wildgoose. The CCD used was a Starlight MX916 and the exposure was 11x 4mins. The picture was taken in November 2002.
The picture on the right was taken using an Orion AG8 astrograph by Peter Shah. He used a Starlight H16 camera. This was his first light shot taken occasionally through thin cloud. 10min exposures each on R, G, B filters and 5 mins luminance.
M109 in Ursa Major
For those of us not using GOTO scopes this very attractive 9th magnitude spiral galaxy is a short star hop from a bright star and therefore very easy to find.
On the left is a monochrome image taken with an 8" F4.5 Newtonian and a TC255 based CCD by Grant Privett. While on the right is a colour lrgb image taken by Peter Shah. using an LX200 from Meade with a Starlight HX916 CCD camera.
M110 and an M31 Globular Cluster
A 15th magnitude globular cluster orbiting M31 is seen in this picture taken with an 8" F4.5 Newtonian by Grant Privett. The close proximity to M110 makes it rather easy to find. Visually it should be seen in well collimated 14" scopes from dark observing sites.
This well known edge on spiral galaxy NGC891 is to be found just the Andromeda side of the Perseus/Andromeda border not far east from beta Andromedae. It was visible in a 8" F4.5 reflector but not terribly impressive - appearing visually as an elongated blob.
On the image on the left the galaxy appears to be about 9' long only just fitting in the field of the 8" scope and TC255 based CCD camera I used.
The rather better picture on the right is by Kev Wildgoose and shows the galaxy as imaged using his Starlight MX916 and 12" Newtonian. The total exposure was 51.5 minutes - 103x 30s.
This bright spiral
can be found just north of the line joining alpha and beta Canes Venatici
and is sometimes over looked due to the nearby M51 and M63 galaxies.
This image was taken by Grant Privett in June 1998 using an 8" F4.8 Newtonian and a
a TC255 camera. The exposure was 25x20s.
This very attractive face on spiral galaxy lies in Come Berenices. Its magnitude 10-11 and pretty much 5' across. Its seen here as imaged by Kev Wildgoose. Its visible in a 6-8" scope but can be mistaken for a globular cluster.
This lovely face-on spiral galaxy lies in Ursa Major not far from Alcor and Mizar. From a dark site a 6" should show it but it is quite low surface brightness. Its seen here as imaged by Peter Shah using his Sphinx mounted Newtonian and Starlight HX916 camera.
Situated on the border of Cane Venatici and Ursa Major this 8th magnitude inclined spiral galaxy can be seenwith binoculars and detail picked up in telescopes in the 150mm aperture league. The image shown here was taken by Kev Wildgoose using an MX916 camera from Starlight Xpress and his 12" Newtonian telescope from near Oswestry.
This relatively bright face on barred spiral galaxy M95 is to be found in Leo not far from M96. It is visible in a 6" reflector.
This fine and detailed image is by Kev Wildgoose in March 2003 and shows the galaxy as imaged using his Starlight MX916 and 12" Newtonian. The total exposure was 15x30s.
This unimpressive dot is the very distant (Z=4.89) quasar PC1247+0340. The 20.4 magnitude (in the red) galaxy is about 12 billion light years away in the consetalltion Canes Venatici. It was imaged using a 250mm F4.8 Newtonian telescope and a TC255 based CCD camera by Grant Privett in 2005. Its not much to look at but required 450x 30s exposures.
This rather nice spiral galaxy can be found in the southern reaches of Pegasus just 3 degrees south of alpha Pegasi. An 11th magnitude classic s-shaped barred spiral with loose arms it images well but is a bit faint in a 200mm scope. Image by Kev Wildgoose.
Two pictures of the fine 8th magnitude spiral galaxy located in the Leo sickle. Visible in binoculars. The HII regions are just detectable, visually, with a 10" scope. Left, as imaged by Kev Wildgoose with his 12" Newtonian and a Starlight MX916 camera with stacked 12x20s exposures. Right, 100x45s exposures by Grant Privett using an 10" Newtonian and a Starlight MX7 camera.
This page last modified 20th December 2008. Copyright of all images remains with whoever took the image/photograph.