My grandpa imaged the Needle Galaxy over 4 nights this week. He got almost 8 hours on it but we had to remove about 2 hours bringing the total to 6. I love how this one turned out! Lots of detail and color, and all of that has been carefully preserved in the core. It's naturally brighter than the rest of the galaxy, but dim enough where you can still make out the details in it.

To the left of the Needle is it's satellite galaxy NGC 4562. To the bottom right of the Needle is it's other satellite galaxy IC 3571, represented in a small blue smudge, which is confirmed to be interacting with the Needle due to a bridge of material between them.

90x240s lights (6 hours) stacked and edited in PixInsight
----
The Needle Galaxy (NGG 4565)
Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
ZWO 294MC Pro (Main)
Jefferson, WI (Bortle 5)
----
#highpointscientific #needlegalaxy #ngc4565 #zwo #294mcpro #zwo294mcpro #galaxy #astrophotography #astronomy #jeffersonwisconsin #wisconsin #jeffersonwi #space

My grandpa captured the Fireworks Galaxy in the middle of May and got almost 5 hours on it! The Fireworks Galaxy is located on the border between the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus. It is a bright, colorful galaxy with a yellowish core, large clusters of blue stars, and many Ha regions (which aren't shown in this image). It's called the 'Fireworks' Galaxy because 10 supernovae have been observed in it over the past century.

70x240s lights (4.67 hours), flats, darks, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril and background extraction and noise reduction applied with GraXpert.
----
Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
Jefferson, WI (Bortle 4.5)
----
#fireworksgalaxy #galaxy #ngc6946 #spiralgalaxy #astrophotography #astronomy #photography #highpointscientific #jefferson #jeffersonwi #wisconsin #jeffersonwisconsin #wi #suburb #suburban #suburbs #celestron #edgehd #edgehd8 #schmidtcassegrain

NGC 3227 is a rarely-imaged spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo that interacts with the elliptical galaxy, NGC 3226. My grandpa imaged this galaxy from late April to early May and got 9.6 hours on it. I like the color of this galaxy a lot and it looks like it has a gradient of color that goes from a light blue to more of a golden brown.

144x240s lights, flats, darks, and biases stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Siril and background extraction and noise reduction applied with GraXpert.
----
NGC 3227/NGC 3226
Celestron EdgeHD 8" (Scope), Celestron CGEM-II (Mount)
ZWO 294MC Pro (Main), ZWO 224MC Color (Guide)
Jefferson, WI (Bortle 4.5)
----
#jeffersonwi #jeffersonwisconsin #jefferson #ngc3227 #ngc3226 #galaxy #interactinggalaxies #astrophotography #astronomy #highpointscientific #deepskystacker #dss #siril #graxpert