In a remarkable feat of amateur astrophotography, Michele Hernandez Bayliss, a Vermont-based astronomer, has managed to capture breathtaking photos of two of the most famous galaxies in our universe: the Croc’s Eye galaxy (Messier 94) and the iconic Whirlpool galaxy (Messier 51).
A Backyard Observatory With A Stellar View
Hernandez Bayliss, who has spent years as a visual astronomer, began her journey into astrophotography only recently.
Over the past two years, she has worked tirelessly to build her own observatory at her home in Weybridge, Vermont.
Despite Vermont’s notoriously unpredictable weather, with its cloudy skies and fleeting clear nights, Hernandez Bayliss was able to seize a rare opportunity in late April to capture the stunning Croc’s Eye galaxy.
Using a Takahashi TOA-130NFB Refractor and a Stellarvue SVX140T-R telescope, along with a suite of necessary peripherals, Hernandez Bayliss took over 20 hours of imaging data over the course of two nights.
The final product? A detailed and vivid portrait of Messier 94, a spiral galaxy that lies about 34 million light-years from Earth.
“The tricky part about galaxies is the processing — for the Croc eye, the challenge was that it was a lot smaller than I thought in my 990 mm scope,” Hernandez Bayliss explained in an email to Space.com.
“I had to do a bit of HDR compression to bring out the core and carefully handle the Synthetic Luminance I created from the LRGB.”
The Beauty of the Whirlpool Galaxy
Earlier this year, Hernandez Bayliss aimed her telescope at the famous Whirlpool galaxy (Messier 51), a stunning spiral galaxy known for its bright central core and sweeping arms.
This time, she used a combination of RGB and hydrogen-alpha (Ha) filters to reveal even more detail.
Over a period of 16 hours in February, the amateur astronomer captured the fine structure of the Whirlpool galaxy, including the dark dust lanes that wind through its spirals.
The results are striking: a vivid portrait of a “grand-design” spiral galaxy that draws the eye to its intricate features.
Interestingly, the Whirlpool galaxy’s spiral arms are believed to be influenced by a close encounter with the smaller galaxy NGC 5195, which lies near the upper arm of the Whirlpool.
This interaction has likely helped enhance the prominent spiral structure of M51, a detail that Hernandez Bayliss’s image captures beautifully.
How One Astronomer Tackled the Toughest Hurdles in Astrophotography
Astrophotography is no simple task, and Hernandez Bayliss had to contend with various challenges.
The primary one, she says, was the need for clear, dark skies. In Vermont, cloudy weather and moonlit nights are common obstacles for astrophotographers.
“So it was awesome to get two nights in quick succession with no clouds, no moon and clear skies — a miracle!,” said Vermont-based astrophotographer
Capturing galaxies like Messier 94, which is relatively smaller in the sky, requires a precise touch.
Hernandez Bayliss’s process involved a delicate balancing act: reducing the brightness of the galaxy’s core to reveal the spiral arms without losing the fine details.
The combination of her telescopic gear, imaging filters, and software skills allowed her to produce an image that even professional astronomers would envy.
