I've imaged NGC 3628 several times before, but always with a focal reducer so I could include the other two members of the Leo Trio. This time I decided to image it by itself. Got a late start, but easily got on target by roughly aiming at θ Leo and using an Astrotortilla plate solve (the current alignment between my Telrad and my AT8IN scope is not very good) to sync the scope with Cartes du Ciel. Plate solving, even at this imaging scale, has become very easy ever since I started using a bad pixel map to get rid of the hot pixels that masquerade as stars (my old DSI IIc camera has plenty). Conditions were quite good: clear, no wind, good mount balance, and tight focus. Imaged up to within 30 min of the meridian, then did a meridian flip (I was extremely tired and wanted to hit the sack as early as possible). Pointed roughly in the right area, used Astrotortilla plate solving again, and then used the PicGoto to reacquire. Set things up to image until the target moved behind the infamous neighbors' tree and went to bed. I suspect I will be hard pressed to get a better result out of this than I got in my 5 Apr 2013 Leo Trio image; that one is one of the best I've ever produced. I tried stacking with and without 2x drizzle, and in this case the image looks better without it.

Date: 26 Mar 2015

Subject: NGC 3628, Hamburger Galaxy

Scope: Astrotech AT8IN+High Point Scientific coma corrector

Filter: Baader Fringe Killer

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.4.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 10 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.3.3, no dither

Exposure: 30x600 s

Stacking: Neb 3.3.3, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, histogram match, deBayer & square. Nebulosity 40-60%tile stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Wipe:81%; Develop: 81.18%; HDRptimize; Color:Scientific, 240%; Deconvolute 3.0 pix; Life:Moderate; Track 6.1 pix; Magic:Shrink 2 pix. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools Deep space noise reduction; Space noise reduction; Star color enhance; Astroframe.