Sculptor Galaxy
23-Nov-2019
The Sculptor Galaxy, also known as the Silver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.
Source: Wikipedia
Some larger foreground stars from the Milky Way have been digitally removed to enhance the galaxy.
Image:
- 91x240s Luminance
- 51x120s Red
- 51x120s Green
- 48x120s Blue
Total integration 11 hours, 4 minutes.
Hardware:
- Skywatcher Esprit 120
- Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount
- QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
- Astrodon LRGB Gen2 E-Series Tru-Balance filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Celestron Large Format off-axis guider
- Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser
Location:
- Exposed over 3 nights between 1st September and 3rd September 2019.
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
- Captured with TheSkyX Professional
- Guiding with PHD2
- PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dynamic background extraction, noise reduction, LRGB combination, photometric color calibration, histogram, curves, crop.
- PixInsight: Spot healing brush on large stars.