I managed to capture a galaxy!!!!

Hiya,

I managed to capture an actual galaxy! I am so happy about it. I live in a light polluted area with a street light about 8 metres from where I am. I also have a limited view due to the telescope being inside the house looking through a skylight. This was taken on my rather antiquated Canon EOS 350D attached to my Skywatcher Explorer 150. I used the maximum of 1600 ISO. Unfortunately, I have only been able to do 30 second exposures without trailing, it starts to trail after 40 seconds. I cannot see Polaris where I am as I have a south facing view.

Congratulations ! Makes your heart skip a beat doesn't it ?! Did you by chance see it in the eye-piece ?

Thank you very much. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the screen! Unfortunately, I couldn't see a thing apart from three bright stars. I hope that once I learn to drive, I can go out and set up the telescope properly in a dark place.

naddieuk wrote in post #18206193
Thank you very much. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the screen! Unfortunately, I couldn't see a thing apart from three bright stars. I hope that once I learn to drive, I can go out and set up the telescope properly in a dark place.

Meanwhile until your able to drive do you try observing with the scope ? Nothing is as exciting as actually seeing a galaxie in the EP of a scope .To stare at a very faint object and most times you have to use your adverted vision to spot those fainties but nothing like seeing one with your eyes ! Being a 150 that should be a 6" scope , more than enough to see galaxies and lots' of nebulaes and beautiful start clusters ! Learn as much as you can about the night sky and learn objects . I highly recommend "Night Watch" by Terence Dickinson . Great book with constellations and object locations . That is probably the best book I have ever had in my book collection . Never to part with it !

https://www.amazon.com …ng-Universe/dp/155407147X

that is NGC 891 also called Caldwell 23. 30 Million light years away. Nice capture

https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/NGC_891

Thank you everyone. I did look that book up Celestron, but there seems to be many versions of it! I hope to buy it early next year. I will definitely try to look through the telescope with my own eyes and try to recognise the objects better.

If you follow that link to Amazon it shows a hard cover . Book can be a spiral cover if you can find one cheaper but as far as versions just look for either the last version or latest version you can find . If you have a Barns and Nobles book store within drive time go there and check it out . I have an older version where the cover image is the same but it's more blue color than the one in the link I provided above and it's a spiral cover . Don't worry so much about vers anyway . What you want is a good clear picture page of constellations . Terence Dickinson is very thorough in all his books on object locations using constellations in all areas of the sky . There is one summer section that has Scorpio and Sagittarius on the same page and shows all objects listed where you can see the location of it . Me and a friend spent one all nighter with two scopes searching out every object listed . Took half the night but it was greatly rewarded !!