NGC 2613: a Barred Spiral Galaxy in Pyxis (rhedden)

NGC 2613: a Barred Spiral Galaxy in Pyxis

NGC 2613 is a barred spiral galaxy that is located in the southern sky at about -23 degrees declination in the constellation Pyxis. Spanning 6.5' x 1.4', it appears reddish brown in color and it is located in a rich star field, so it seems likely that we are viewing it through dust from our own galaxy. Its apparent magnitude is about 10.4.

This galaxy is a difficult object to image from my location in the southern US, as it never gets more than about 33 degrees above the horizon. Imaging through a thick layer of atmosphere amplifies the effects of seeing, so the star profiles are invariably fatter than one would hope for. This image was shot in a single evening with near zero wind and above average seeing, so it is as good as I am likely to do from my location.

I think I overstretched this one badly in the first processing revision, so the "B" rev. has a gentler stretch and much smaller stars. I also eliminated the diffraction spikes.

Original
B
Final
C

C

Description: This galaxy never gets higher that 33 degrees above the southern horizon from my former location in Texas, making it a challenging object to image. The low elevation resulted in blurry, large stars, of course. The revision has improved stars after performing some additional processing in ImagesPlus, siriL, and GIMP. Noise reduction was done (gently) with Topaz AI. I am glad I imaged this galaxy before moving north by 9 degrees in latitude, even if it's on the blurry side.

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Status	Basic failed
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Astrometry.net job	986650
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