NGC 3628
Characteristics:
Magnitude: 9.5
Size: about 13' in length
Distance: 35 million light years
RA: 11h 20m 34s
Dec: 13 degrees 34' 21"
Description:
NGC 3628 is an edge-on galaxy
that was discovered by William Herschel. It is the faintest of
the Leo Triplet
group and was evidently missed by Messier. This galaxy is
best known for its highly detailed central dust lane, as well as its
mishapen periphery, felt to be a result of interaction with nearby
galaxies M65 and M66. On the higher magnification view, notice
the numerous tiny galaxies present in this FOV. The asteroid
Eunike was coursing through this field in the upper right hand portion
of the image during exposure- most of the asteroid trail was rejected
during the Sigma combine, and I cloned out the residual for aesthetic
purposes. This represents the first light image from my new Takahashi FS-102,
which yields a FOV of 37' x 50' and an image scale of 2.15 arcsec/pixel
at f6 with the SXV-H9 camera.
Photographic Details:
Date: March 13, 2005.
Scope: Takahashi
FS-102 at f6 with TOA-130 focal reducer, on the G11 Losmandy
Mount.
Autoguider: SBIG STV with
e-finder.
Camera: SXV-H9
Filter: Astronomik
Type II R, G, B, plus clear filter set.
Exposures: L:R:G:B. 120'
for Luminance, unbinned; 20' each for R, G, and B, binned 2 x 2.
Conditions: Temperature 28 degrees F; average
transparency; average seeing; a few passing clouds.
Post-processing: No darks,
although bias-subtracted flats were used for this image.
Alignment
done in Maxim.
Sigma
combined using RC Sigma Reject Plug-in for MaximDL. DDP was
performed in ImagesPlus
(IP). Subsequent
levels and curves adjustments in Photoshop CS (16 bit format). I
used the Dynamic Background Extraction tool (DBE) of PixInsight to
correct for color gradients in the RGB image, prior to combining with
luminance. Final sharpening done with high pass filtering at a
radius of 3, followed by Lucy-Richardson deconvolution (PSF 5x5, 2
iterations).
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note: Graphics on this website
may not be reproduced without author permission.
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