Astrophotography by Keith B. Quattrocchi


M87
Supergiant Spiral Galaxy in Virgo
LRGB Image
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Copyright 2022
Keith B Quattrocchi and Bray Falls

Image Acquisition Information  
                    
Telescope: 16" RCOS Richey Chretien Telescope (ion milled at f/9) 
Camera: ZWO Full Frame Back Illuminated CMOS ASI 6200 MM
Guiding: Starlight Xpress AO with UltraStar Autoguiding Camera (AO control using maxim DL software).
Filters: Astrodon LRBG, H-alpha, S-II and OIII Filters
Acquisition Programs: NINA, The SkyX, PHD2, PWI4
Processing Programs: PixInsight, RC Astro, CCDStack, Photoshop CS4
Date: Data processed on May 15, 2022.  Data acquisition:  April of 2022                           
Time:  6 hours (10 minute exposures) for each of LRGB  for a total of 24 hours.                
              
Image Information: ​M87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, located about 55 million light-years from Earth. It is known for its supermassive black hole at the center, which powers a powerful jet of plasma that extends for thousands of light-years and has been the subject of major astronomical observations, including the first image of a black hole's event horizon captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. The galaxy contains trillions of stars and around 15,000 globular clusters, making it one of the most massive and dominant galaxies in our local universe.  
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Processing Information: These LRGB images were obtained using AstroDon filters.  The LRGB images were batch processed (calibrated, registered, normalized and integrated) in PixInsignt.   Further stretching, high pass filtering and background smoothing was performed with Adobe Photoshop CS/4 and PixInsight.