I have really been looking for something to make my own “Hubble deep field” style image. As probably everyone does, I just love those galaxy-dense images that show us a multitude of worlds that are mighty old. And what luck: given the poor weather for the last three weeks, I found the beautifully rich galaxy cluster in Hercules in the perfect part of my sky. The atmosphere was in good condition, save for a few spats with passing clouds, and the guiding was quite content after a good recalibration. Everything was dew soaked by morning, but my secondary heater and primary fan had no problems keeping it away from the shiny bits. The ASI2600MC ran at about 20°F in 70°F lows.
This is a little over four hours of four minute exposures.
The galaxies in this image lie between 400 and 700 million light years away. Light left these galaxies to reach my telescope long before the dinosaurs were around. How many galaxies can you find?
