Highlights of March 2, 2011

Dick Steinberg

All images are stacks of  5-minute externally-guided subexposures with a Hyperion reflector at the Blue Mountain Vista Observatory .

(90482) Orcus, one of the largest trans-neptunian objects. Animation of 2 one-hour exposures separated by 24 hours. Orcus is a magnitude 19.2 object in Sextans, and is currently at a distance of 47.0 AU from earth.

M78, a reflection nebula in Orion, part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex about 1600 light years distant. Contains many young stars still in the formation process.

Leo triplet,  three spirals: M65, M66 and NGC3628. This image represents a 55-minute exposure. A highly-stretched version of the same image reveals streams of material ejected from NGC3628 by tidal effects.

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Hyperion 317mm f/8 corrected Cassegrain - Paramount ME - Apogee U16M binned 2x2 - 2048x2048 pixels - 1.46 arcsec/pixel - FOV 50 arcmin square - acquisition and processing: MaxIm DL 5.14 - automation: CCD Commander 1.6.33 - piggy-back guider Orion 80mm f/11.4 + SBIG ST8 camera