Yet another clear night in Southend last night. Hurrah!
Unfortunately it was also a full moon. Boohoo.
Fortunately, it’s nearly summer and the moon was low in the sky.
To see why the full moon is low in the sky in summer, have a look here.
So I set to work taking snaps of the Whirlpool galaxy. 5s exposures are distinctly unimpressive of this 30m ly distant object.
However, if you take over 300 of them, and get a computer to stack the images, it looks a bit better.
That’s probably close to the limit of what I can achieve with my current equipment. Others have really gone to town. This is what 10 DAYS of imaging can get you.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230811.html
Or if you happen to have a telescope in space.
Platitude of the Day 
That is pretty damn impressive. What a wonderful object. Wikipedia tells us that there are probably 100 billion stars in the Whirlpool Galaxy, about half the number in the Milky Way. Even if one in a thousand has planets round it, and even if one in a million of those includes a rocky planet in the Goldilocks Zone (both probably underestimates), that leaves about 10,000 where life might have arisen (hope my sums are right). Has Jesus found time to visit them all yet, one wonders.
Thanks so much for this post!
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Thanks StephenJP, I’m glad you enjoyed the picture. I was hoping to add a post about M101 today, but the image didn’t come out too well. The warmish night is leading to a lot of camera noise. But, of all things, I didn’t have the camera in focus. Doh!
https://mega.nz/file/ckgGTJza#XmlGLtqxBBJmdmBiGTOApNAq-twkUVoeJlGimvLuusQ
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I have ‘found’ a 10″ refractor in the caretaker’s garage at my school, from the distant days of GCSE Astronomy. It is missing a few bits and will cost about £100 to get it working. Sadly, I doubt it will see any action and will remain in my store room.
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If you mean a 10″ aperture then that is absolutely massive. It would be a great shame to see an instrument like that go to waste. If you’re able to find a local astronomy club, I’m sure someone will want to have a look at it.
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