pm74

M74

To see the faint detail in this image, adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast to clearly show all 17 steps in this grayscale chart:

Click here to see the supernova SN2002AP in this image: M74 (990x689 pixels)

Imaging Equipment:

Telescope: Celestron C11, 11" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain reduced to f/6.0

Zeiss II German Equatorial Mount

Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-8E NABG CCD camera (1530 x 1020 pixels, 9 x 9mm, monochromatic, 16 bit, 13.8 x 9.2mm array)

CWF8 color filter wheel with Ha and IR-blocking red, green and blue dichroic filters

Exposure Information:

Date: Friday October 4, 2002
Location: Mt. Pinos, CA
Elevation: Approx. 8300', OAT +36F
CCD operating temperature: -27C
Composition: LRGB 160:50:50:70 minutes. Total exposure time: 330 minutes
All subexposures were 10 minutes each, unbinned
Plate scale: 1.1 arc-sec/pixel

About Supernova SN2002AP

Supernova 2002AP was discovered on January 29, 2002 by Japanese amateur astronomer Yoji Hirose using a 10" f/6.3 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The supernova is located about 5 arcminutes southwest of M74's core. Its brightness peaked in early February at about Magnitude 12.3 and had faded to magnitude 17.5 at the time I shot the above image on October 4, 2002.

(Back)