ARP94 – A Pair of Interacting Galaxies in Leo
A quick one this…
I couldn’t make it to the last SEKAS meeting prior to them going on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I heard that the month’s imaging challenge was ARP94, a pair of interacting galaxies in Leo. As this is likely to be the last challenge for a little while, I pointed the scope Leo-wards on 22nd March and grabbed it. I was using totally the wrong scope (ED70), as my primary target was slightly bigger, but I just wanted to see what I could get.
This is about three hours of luminance data, believe it or not, in 5-min subs – captured with the Atik314L on the Ikharos ED70 f/6 on the HEQ5. Processed in MaximDL, Photoshop 2020 and Lightroom. Quite heavily cropped as with that scope, it got lost in the middle of the frame if I didn’t!
Caught the whispy shell bits, which is the stellar material being thrown off into space by the force of the interaction.

- Object – ARP94
- Constellation – Leo
- Camera – Atik 314L Mono
- Exposure Luminance – 3hrs
- Telescope – Ikharos ED70 f/6 Refractor
- Mount – Skywatcher HEQ5 with Rowan Belt Mod
- Guidescope – Off-axis
- Guidecam – SX Lodestar
- Guide Software – PHD2
- Auto-Focuser – Home-Made MyFocuserPro2 Autofocuser
- Capture Software – Sequence Generator Pro
- Stacking, Colour Combination, and Initial Processing – MaximDL
- Mosaic Combination and Post-Processing – Photoshop 2020 and Lightroom CC.
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