M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy

This is a 10 minute exposure of M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) which is a whopping 24 million light years away

Now I don't know if this is cheating (okay it kind of is) but the image was too cool not to post, I took this using a remote controlled telescope in New Mexico. I urge everyone to check out the site, there is a free trial and after that you can buy credits for time with one of the many telescopes in New-Mexico, Spain and Australia.

As I am just starting out using it I used the default settings to take this, which I suppose is like letting someone set up the camera for you then you just press the little clicker to make it snap the photo. But now that I am a subscriber I can fully control the scopes settings exposure times, filters, schedule times and targets using the GO-TO database or by entering exact RA DEC coordinates.

Whats amazing about this is not only is it a supurb tool to take astrophotography with very very expensive high-end technology from the comfort of your home, but it can (and is) used for real science, these telescopes aren't just toys!

So, as as long as I can carry on convincing myself that these count as "my" photos expect many more astro-blips as I get the hang of this amazing piece of technology.

www.iTelescope.net

Edit: Coincidentally, my "One Year Ago" blip was an astroblip too!!!