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| Object | NGC 5078 Galaxy |
| Info |
NGC 2997- is located in the constellation of Hydra. It is a lenticular or lens shaped galaxy which has a very distinct dust lane that has warped and expanded through interaction with the small companion galaxy IC 879. IC 879 is being attracted by the gravitational influence exerted on it by NGC 5078 as is evident by it's 'S' shape. The bluish tinge of colour to parts of the fainter galaxy suggests star formation, perhaps initiated by the interaction. Eventually the satellite galaxy will merge with it's larger companion to form a singular body. NGC 5078 is approximately 80 million light years away. |
| Date | 24th(lum) & 26th(rgb)/ 3/ 07 |
| Location | BayTop Observatory- Streaky Bay South Australia |
| Instrument | Home built 10" Newtonian (Bob Royce primary) with MPCC coma corrector. System working @ native f4/ 1016 FL 1.35 arcsec/pixel- FOV 23.3x29.4 |
| Mount | Celestron CI700 controlled by a Mel Bartels Goto Control System with Vexta PK264m-01b motors with a pulley and belt system |
| Camera (CCD) | Starlight Xpress HX916 monochrome with Atik manual filter wheel. |
| Exposures | Lum 72'(combined) R:33' G:33" B:33" [all 3' sub exposures all unbinned] No dark frames removed. |
| Guiding | Orion 80ED refractor F7.5 with a Starlight Xpress HX516 CCD. Mounted via a side by side accessory plate. |
| Filters | Astronomik clear/ RGB Type II Filter set |
| Notes/ Conditions |
Conditions- While taking the luminance frames, seeing was a little poor and transparency was average to good. When taking the colour channels, the conditions started off ok, then wind began to gust while taking the blue channel. Severe gradients to the overall combined rgb composite. Gradients removed by PixInsight Le's back ground extraction routine to the separate channels. Happy to have fixed my incorrect spacing on my coma corrector when I took my colour channel, but the Lum composite showed a little to the edges. Colour is a little mute due to taking them through a 58% illuminated moon. Lum average FWHM 1.8. RGB average FWHM 1.7 |