M86 & Company

M86 - a huge galaxy near the center of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. This is my first production image from the JMSM Observatory in New Mexico (owned by Mike Sherick). Click the image for the full image details and larger versions.

Mid last year an astrophotographer friend of mine, Mike Sherick, who lived in Camarillo decided to move to Las Cruces, New Mexico and build a remote observatory 2 hours north east of Las Cruces in the area of Mayhill, New Mexico.

The Mayhill area is the ultimate astronomy location in the US, with extremely dark and very steady skies. Many of the most renowned amateur astrophotographers either have facilities here or come to the nearby astronomy Bed & Breakfast Inn.

Mike enlisted my help for setting up some of the remote control aspects of the facility (computer software and some of the hardware) in trade for time using the telescope there. There is one other partner (Dean) who has been helping out and is presently the closest of the three of us in southern Arizona.

Click here for some shots of the facility.

Be sure to check out some of the links, including a real-time mosaic hosted on my web site here.
(I wrote the software that controls the camera to create this mosaic.)

Dean and I have been alternating nights for the past couple of weeks working out the bugs with Mike taking some time when he can - he is still pretty busy in the process of building his house in Las Cruces and packing and building a 24" telescope that will ultimately be housed at this observatory. (Right now we are using a telescope that is essentially the same I have in my "observatory" - a 6" refractor.)

Just this week I was able to complete my first "production" image. I've taken some other test images that were never taken to completion.

This image is the region around M86 - a huge galaxy near the center of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. There are hoards of galaxies in this image.

This is a fascinating region to explore for the many galaxies in the field. Just about anything fuzzy is another galaxy. Don't confuse the bright stars that have a bright well defined circle with a fuzzy outer ring with a galaxy. But the dimmer fuzzy objects are most likely all galaxies...

Enjoy!
-Matt