M74
To see the faint detail in this
image, adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast to clearly show all 17
steps in this grayscale chart:
Click here to see the supernova SN2002AP in this image: M74 (990x689 pixels)
- Telescope:
Celestron C11, 11" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain reduced to f/6.0
- Zeiss
II German Equatorial Mount
- Santa
Barbara Instrument Group ST-8E NABG CCD camera (1530 x 1020 pixels, 9 x 9mm, monochromatic, 16 bit, 13.8 x 9.2mm array)
- CWF8
color filter wheel with Ha and IR-blocking red, green and blue dichroic filters
Exposure Information:
- Date:
Friday October 4, 2002
- Location:
Mt. Pinos, CA
- Elevation:
Approx. 8300', OAT +36F
- CCD
operating temperature: -27C
- Composition:
LRGB 160:50:50:70 minutes. Total exposure time: 330 minutes
- All
subexposures were 10 minutes each, unbinned
- Plate
scale: 1.1 arc-sec/pixel
About Supernova SN2002AP
Supernova
2002AP was discovered on January 29, 2002 by Japanese amateur astronomer Yoji Hirose using a 10" f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The supernova is located about 5 arcminutes southwest of M74's core. Its brightness peaked
in early February at about Magnitude 12.3 and had faded to magnitude 17.5 at
the time I shot the above image on October 4, 2002.