News Update April 2010
I have now got a meade wedge, and once I have come to terms with it and the procedures for polar alignment I hope to be making comments and posting longer exposures. First impressions are that the wedge makes the setup more susceptible to vibration including wind induced effects. The set up time is longer and its not so easy to fold the field tripod away. I think I have mastered the concept of drift alignment with the aid of good tutorials (see the useful links section for finding these.) To date I have got unguided exposures of up to 60 seconds, though with a 30%-60% failure rate in individual shots.
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Welcome to the Burntwood Observatory (Walsall Astronomy) Website. Based in the West Midlands (UK) near Walsall, this is an amateur astronomical observatory with interest in both solar system and deep sky objects. However, because of the unavoidable fact that the observatory is located in a site that suffers from severe light pollution, visual observation of all but the brightest galaxies and nebulae is challenging. However, there is still much to see and do.
The telescope in primary use is a 200cm Meade LX90 SCT in AltAz mode and uses a Meade DSI colour ccd device for deep sky and a webcam for moon and planetary imaging. The manufacturer's details of the telescope can be found by visiting www.meade.com Further details of the telescope may be found in the equipment section of this website. All of the astronomical images on this site have been taken through the LX90 sometimes with the use of focal reducers to flatten and reduce image scale.The AltAz configuration limits individual deep sky frame times to 30 seconds or so before field rotation begins to have significant effects (rotation between individual frames is cancelled out with drizzle technology). Despite such time limitations, imaging can be a useful way, and indeed the only way of observing objects that are otherwise lost in light polluted skies. Click here to return to the homepage
M51, in the constellation of Canes Venatici.
Basic Data
RA 13h29m55.7s , dec +47d13m53s
Helio. Radial Velocity : 600 km/s
Redshift : 0.002000, distance 23x106 lyrs.
Morphology : SAbc
Magnitude and Filter : 8.6
Size (arcmin) : 9.
The Whirlpool galaxy as it is called, is actually two interacting galaxies. The large spiral is NGC 5194 and the small galaxy (which is slightly behind the former) is NGC 5195.