Comet C/2019 Y4 with TAL200K from March 26

I reworked earlier pictures from Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) made on March 26, 2020. Pictures made with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5; setting ISO6400 and 19 x 30s exposure time. Raw data converted to DNG and stacking using DeepSkyStacker with focus on the Comet. Final editing with CS4.

The picture shows a bright coma a getting brighter then previous days. Now we know the comet fell apart the beginning of April.

An amazing 4,56 billion light years away!

With Stephan's Quintet I was able to look at an object which is about 210-340 million light years away from Earth? The question at that time : can I see further?

I knew the existance of Quasars but I never thought I could see them with my own telescoop. I found an interesting and very recent article on Sky&Telescoop : Twinkle, Twinkle, Quasi-Star - 12 Quasars for Spring evenings - see this link.

After reading the article I was convinced that I at least should try to find some of the mentioned Quasars. As described, a Quasar, or Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO) is seen as a star but in reality it is a galaxy with a huge black hole at the center. The black hole can have a mass, billions of time more then our sun and outshines it's own galaxy. 

The first Quasar discoverd is 3C 273 located in constellation Virgo. With a magnitude of 12,9 it should be possible to find it with my 8" telescoop. First I enabled the QSO objects in stellarium and I made sure the telescope was perfectly alligned. A bahtinov mask was used to get real sharp pictures. Images were taken and compared with the charts from the article in S&T. And yes, there it was....... 3C 273 located at a distance of 2.5 billion light years away from Earth. And this from my own backgarden, amazing!

Next to Virgo is constellation Leo with Quasar PG1116+215. More difficult to find and after editing I verified my observation using the Simbad Astronomical database. This Quasar PG 1116+215 is about 2,3 billion light years away from Earth.

Next I started searching for Quasar HS 0624+6907 in constellation Camelopardalis. It took me a lot of time and effort to find this Quasor. Finaly, after 180° rotating the image I could spot the Quasar HS 0624+6907 as a very weak "star" with magnitude 14. This Quasar is located at a distance of 4,56 billion light years away from Earth.

To conclude, It's possible to see Quasars yourself using an 8" telescoop and knowing you see objects at a distance of 4,56 billion light years away. Try this at home :)

All pictures taken with Nikon D7500 and TAL 200K/f/8.5. Setting ISO6400 and exposure of 60s each. Stacking with DeepSkyStacker and final editing in CS4. The mount was connected to Stellarium and the camera controlled by DigiCamControl.

Black Eye Galaxy M64

Messier M64, The Black Eye Galaxy is located in constellation Coma Berenices and is about 17 million lightyears away from Earth.
Session taken with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5; setting ISO6400 and 37x60s. DeepSkyStacker was used to stack all pictures (Raw pictures first converted to DNG). Final editing using CS4.
The mount was connected with the PC via Stellarium software; camera was controlled by DigiCamControl Software.

Comet C/2017 T Panstarrs with TAL200K

Picture of Comet C/2017 T2 Panstarrs with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K. Setting ISO3200 and 5x60s exposure time. Stacking with DeepSkyStacker on both start and comet.

Comet C/2019 Y1 with TAL200K

On the evening of April 21, I took a session of 11x60s ISO3200 pictures of Comet C/2019 Y1 (Atlas).  Pictures are stacked using DeepSkyStacker with focus on both the comet and the stars. Final editing with CS4.
The comet is rather bright; for sure when comparing with C/2019 Y which is getting fainter every day.

Comet C/2019 Y4 Desintegrating

Comet C/2019 Y would be a naked eye comet during the month May but early April it was clear that it will not be the case. It was found out that the comet was falling apart. Recent pictures with the 25years old Hubble telescope confirmed the desintegration of the Comet. The picture show different fragments.
As a comparison :) above the picture from Hubble and below my picture of the Comet. Both pictures are  taken on the same day, April 20, 2020.

Whirlpool Galaxy M51 Long Exposure

In the last week I took a series of pictures from the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. The session from April 10, 20 and 22 are stacked using DeepSkyStacker.
All pictures taken with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5; setting ISO3200 and ISO6400 with a total exposure of 1h34min. This is a new personel record :)