Galaxies NGC5101 and NGC5078
31-May-2016
This two panel mosaic shows the large galaxies NGC5101 (left) and NGC5078 (right), approximately 89 and 94 million light years distant. Galaxy IC879 is interacting with NGC5078, while galaxy IC4222 is shown in the bottom right corner. Numerous other small galaxies appear throughout the background
Image:
- 121x 480s Luminance bin2x2 + 30 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 22x 480s Red bin2x2 + 15 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 22x 480s Green bin2x2 + 15 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
- 24x 480s Blue bin2x2 + 15 flat + 50x dark + 120x bias
Total exposure 25 hours 12 minutes.
Hardware:
- Celestron EdgeHD 1100
- SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
- Celestron 0.7x EdgeHD focal reducer
- QSI 683-ws Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik Typ 2c RGB filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Foresight Innovations On Axis Guider
- Starlight Xpress Adaptive Optics
Location:
- Green zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
- Imaged over 10 nights.
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
- Captured with AstroArt 6
- Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
- CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
- CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, flatten background.
- Photoshop CC: Reduce noise, gradient removal, high pass filter, color balance, curves, shadows/highlights, minimum filter.