Here we have an attempt at NGC4536, a beautiful intermediate spiral in Virgo and my first image of this Galaxy Season. I learned that an intermediate spiral classification lies between a barred spiral and a non-barred spiral. So maybe a weakly barred spiral?
This is a starburst galaxy that appears to be a bit disturbed, perhaps because of an interaction with neighboring NGC453. It has a Milky Way type diameter at about 100,000 ly.
The galaxy has an apparent size of 7.2'x3.6' so not big from our point of view but not too small to capture some detail with a 9.25" telescope with this sampling. This is the first image that I have done with this 10Micron mount without guiding. Folks have told me that it is not necessary to guide with this mount but I was dubious. To image without worrying all night about guiding is very liberating indeed. The masters had tight stars with excellent eccentricity so I'm very pleased.
In processing this, I struggled a bit trying to find the "right" way to deal with stars. Tiny stars are always nice from an aesthetic perspective but in my way of trying to present things, I don't want to reduce stars very much if at all because I think the background galaxies and other structures, which I think are as important as the main subject, can be lost.
@Andreas Zeinert mentioned this idea in his most recent image and I agree with his thoughts on the matter.
Anyhow, I hope you like this one and any comments or criticism is always welcome. Clear Skies and good health!
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