Spiral Galaxy NGC6902 and Friends
30-Jul-2018
NGC 6902 is a spiral galaxy 33 million light years away in the Sagittarius constellation. It has a very bright center, with grand spiral arms extending out much further than the local light pollution allowed me to see.
Also in the image are numerous other galaxies. The 133 million light years distant barred spiral IC 4946 is to the far left, with spiral galaxy ESO 285-5 (NGC 6902B) 136 million light years distant at the top.
Image:
- 94x 300s Luminance
- 46x 300s Red
- 43x 300s Green
- 42x 300s Blue
Total integration 18 hours 45 minutes.
Hardware:
- GSO carbon fibre RC8
- Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount
- QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik Luminance, Deep Sky RGB filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
- Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II
Location:
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
- Imaged over 8 nights.
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
- Captured with TheSkyX Professional
- Guiding with PHD2
- FocusLock live focusing
- PixInsight: Calibration, registration, integration, dynamic background extraction, noise reduction, histogram transformation, HDR multiscale transform, curves, star reduction, crop.