Globular Cluster M3

Last night (the 8th May 2026) we had some more clear weather after having had a period of unsettled conditions. These poor conditions coincided with the full Moon, so it wasn't too much of a bother. Today the Moon is at last quarter and it didn't rise until about 02:35 BST, so it didn't interfere with my observations last night. My object for inspection was the globular cluster M3 which lies on the southern border of the constellation of Canes Venatici next to Bootes. We are getting close to the time now when there is no complete darkness all night and so my observations started quite late in the evening. Here is what I obtained after 475x15s (1 hour 58.75 minutes) of observation on the Dwarf 3:-

The first frame was taken at 22:20 BST and the last at 01:01 today. The astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. Auto parameters were used in Stellar Studio. I have increased the saturation of the image in Photoshop and binned it x2. One thing that I did was to restack all the images in Mega Stack because, weirdly, the automated process for this had included a number of frames that had satellite trails and this was ruining the picture. So I went through all the images again and deleted those with noticeable trails before I restacked. The resulting image is quite letter boxy and this is due to field rotation in the alt-az mode. Stellar Studio crops out parts of the image that have been badly affected by field rotation.

M3 is a pretty spectacular cluster as you can see from the image. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

What is satisfying here is how so many stars have been resolved almost to the centre of the cluster. M3 is a very fine object and only appears to be somewhat fainter than the famous M13 cluster in Hercules because it is further away (it lies at a distance of 10.4 kpc as apposed to M13's 7.4 kpc). Amazingly there are 250,000 stars contained within a radius of 11 light-years of its centre. Compare this with the fact that there are only 12 known stars within 10 light-years from our sun. It would be very interesting to look up at the night sky from a planet orbiting a star in the core of M3! I am sure it would be like looking at a piece of black velvet studded with thousands of diamonds.

Going back to the wide-field image above, there is another interloper to the upper centre right and this is the galaxy NGC 5263. 

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

The Coma Cluster (Caldwell 35)

My final image from last week was taken on the 24th April 2026 using my Dwarf 3. I decided to try a much more difficult and faint object and this was the Coma Cluster of galaxies in Coma Berenices. This cluster appears as number 35 in Patrick Moore's Caldwell Catalogue and the galaxies in it are located 300 million light years from us. On the 24th the Moon was at first quarter and it didn't set until 03:43 BST on the 25th, so light from it was making observation more difficult. Added to this, towards midnight a mist arose which terminated my observing. Here is what I obtained after 368x15s (1 hour 32 minutes) of observation:-

 

The cluster is the faint collection of objects near the centre of the image. The first frame was taken at 22:25 BST and the last at 00:21 on the 25th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings and binned x2. Here is a more close up version using the unbinned image:-

The cluster is dominated by two supergiant elliptical galaxies, NGC 4889 (left of centre) and NGC 4874 (right of centre). It looks like there is a swarm of stars surrounding these two objects, but these are in fact galaxies (the cluster contains at least 1000 bright ellipticals). Below I have attempted to label some of the brighter galaxies in the full frame image (click to enlarge):-

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy)

Last Thursday (the 23rd April 2026) the continuing good weather meant that I could observe another classic spiral galaxy, M51 The Whirlpool. Like the Whale and the Hockey Stick and M63 this object is also found in Canes Venatici and is located not far from the end of the tail of the bear, Ursa Major. I observed this object three years ago at about this time of year and also back in 2016. Here is what I obtained after 357x15s (1 hour 29.25 minutes):-

All I can say is wow, what a difference! The first frame was at 22:36 BST and the last at 00:35 on the 24th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a more close up version using the unbinned image:-

The full impact of this impressive galaxy can be seen in detail. M51 consists of two galaxies that are gravitationally interacting. The larger NGC 5194 is the one designated as M51; the smaller one to the left that is literally being pulled apart is NGC 5195. This is very clear in this deeper image where you can see streams of stars and dust that are being thrown into space (see the reddish light above and below NGC 5195). The spewed matter is probably coming from the spiral arms of both galaxies.

Going back to the wide-field image above, there are a number of other galaxies that can be seen within the frame and I have marked them with the following annotated version (click on the image to see the full size version):-

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4565 (The Needle Galaxy)

Continuing on with the run of good weather we have been experiencing recently, last Wednesday, the 22nd April I was able to turn my attention to another galaxy in Coma Berenices, NGC 4565 which has been nicknamed the Needle Galaxy. NGC 4565 lies close to the North Galactic Pole, a direction which is perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy and so is free from the obscuration of the galactic disc. This explains why so many more galaxies are clearly visible in this direction. Add to this there is the Virgo Cluster of galaxies that lies along the southern edge of this constellation and into the northern part of Virgo. The Moon was only two days to first quarter, so whilst causing some light interference, it wasn't too much of a worry. Here is what I obtained after 296x15s (1 hour 14 mins) of observation:-

The Needle is in the centre of the frame and, as you can see, its sharp shape comes from the fact that this spiral galaxy is seen edge on. There is another large object seen at the far right of this image and that is NGC 4494 - a large elliptical galaxy. The first frame was taken at 22:41 BST and the last at 00:13 on the 23rd. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio using auto settings. The saturation was increased in Photoshop and the image binned x2.

A more close up view of this galaxy is shown below (using the unbinned image):- 

I have increased the sharpening in this version. You can see clearly the central bulge of the galaxy and a dark dust lane that traverses it. Interestingly, the disc does not appear to be symmetric about the galaxy's centre. There upper half of the disc extends out further than the lower half. This may be due to interaction with other galaxies. There is another galaxy visible to the right and this NGC 4562.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

M100 and associates

On the same evening I was photographing the four day old Moon (the 21st April 2026), I also had a go at imaging the spiral galaxy M100 in the south-west part of the constellation of Coma Berenices. M100 is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Here is what I obtained with the Dwarf 3 after 448x15s (1 hour 52 minutes):-

M100 lies at the centre of this frame (click on the image to obtain a better view). The first frame was taken at 22:10 BST and the last at 00:32 on the 22nd. The gain was 60 and the Astro filter was employed. The saturation has been increased in photoshop and the image binned x2. Here is a cropped version of the unbinned image:-

The nice spiral nature of the arms can be seen more clearly, as can a number of other galaxies in the same field (particularly NGC4312 at the lower right). In fact the whole image above has numerous galaxies in it and I have produced an annotated version below:-

I haven't labelled all the galaxies in this image, just some of the brighter ones (again click on the image to get a better view).

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

Crescent Moon

On Tuesday (the 21st April) of this week the clear weather continued and the four day old Moon hung attractively over the western horizon. Before carrying on with my deep sky adventures I thought I would use the Dwarf 3 to photograph it. This is what I obtained at 21:47 BST:-

 

The Dwarf takes 20 frames (in this case with a shutter speed of 1/160s and gain 10) and then stacks them to obtain a better resolution image. I have cropped the original. This is the raw, unprocessed image - I felt that the one obtained in Stellar Studio looked a bit over sharpened. This is actually how the Moon appears to the naked eye with North up and West to the right. Below, I have annotated one or two features of interest:-

January before last I tried drawing the crater Atlas as I saw it though my 4 inch refractor. Vallis Rheita looks like a tectonic valley but is actually formed from an overlapping chain of impact craters.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026 

NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 (The Whale and the Hockey Stick)

Last Sunday (the 19th April 2026) the weather was dry and clear and the Moon was two days after new. As we get ever closer to May the twilight impinges more and more on our evening sky. On this particular night astronomical twilight ended at about 22:15 BST, so quite late! My target for this evening was the pair of galaxies NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 in Canes Venatici, nicknamed the Whale and the Hockey Stick. Here is what I obtained after 408x15s (1 hour 42 minutes) of observation on my Dwarf 3:-

The first frame was taken at 21:59 BST and the last at 00:10 on the 20th. The Astro filter was employed and the gain was 60. The image was processed in Stellar Studio with auto settings and the saturation and sharpening were increased in Photoshop. The image is binned x2. For obvious reasons, the Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631) is the one in the upper centre of the frame and the Hockey Stick (NGC 4656) is the one below. Here is an unbinned cropped version of this image:-

The two galaxies do look remarkably like their moniker's. The Whale is an edge-on spiral galaxy and it has a smaller elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 floating above its back. The Hockey Stick galaxy is another edge-on barred spiral galaxy that has been distorted by gravitational interaction with the Whale. In fact both galaxies have been affected by this encounter as star formation has been induced in both. If you look closely at the Hockey Stick (click on the image) you can see a faint band of blue stars stretching off to the left of the blade.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2026