Smoky Skies

On the evening of June 2, 2019 I imaged another 12 objects; galaxies actually. There was a complicating factor in this observing run; smoke. According to the local weather caster, this is smoke carried by the jet stream from Canada to Georgia. This references the fire . Haze, smoke, water vapor, and high cloudiness all contribute to making observing of fuzzy objects … well, challenging to say the least. You loose contrast, which means it is more difficult than it would normally be to separate the faint, cloud-like objects from the cloud-like atmosphere. I decided to let the images I took “count” as part of my images in the Herschel 400 list (which, as of last night, is at 325) for several reasons: 1) sometimes you just have to play the card you are dealt; you can't change the weather. 2) with my eyes, what I imaged is FAR better than anything I could have seen. 3) with the past year health wise, I may not be around or have the ability to image for much longer and I have to image this part of the sky when I it's available.

Many of the galaxies on the list are just so so; they look a lot like a fuzzy star that's elongated. Others show more structure; knots of stars, the arms of the galaxy, etc. Thus they are more interesting, visually. The first image I took last night was that kind. The image contains lots of galaxies, behind the smoke. But, two are visible; NGC4526 (towards the top) and NGC4535. This is a pair I would like to come back to and image in color, minus the smoke.

NGC4526 and NGC4535