ASTROPIXELSEATONS HILL OBSERVATORY
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FROM THE OBSERVATORY · 31-May-2016

Galaxies NGC5101 and NGC5078

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Galaxies NGC5101 and NGC5078
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
BEHIND THE IMAGE

Notes from the session

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.