NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy (Bruce Rohrlach)

NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

NGC 253 is the 3rd of five targets I worked on during last Saturday night from Phillip Island. The Sculptor galaxy (in the constellation Sculptor) is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy that is around 10 million light years distant. With around a hundred billion stars, it is the largest galaxy in the Sculptor group of galaxies, the closest group to the Local Group that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda. Sculptor is one of the finest galaxies in the sky and was missed by Messier due to its southern declination. It is known for its vast lanes of dust that can be easily imaged by professionals and amateurs alike. The many bright clumps dotted throughout the galaxy are “stellar nurseries” where hot, young stars have just ignited.

The central bulge of NGC 253 contains old stars mainly, so its colour is yellowish-reddish, while the continuous star formation taking place in the disc producing a lot of young stars, whose strong blue light makes the outer region of the spiral arms blue. The long axis of the Sculptor Galaxy has an angular width equivalent to the full moon, and is visible in binoculars from a dark site.

Specs: 170 x 15 secs (Gain 250) + 69 x 15 secs (Gain 350), stacked as 2 groups in DSS (2 sets of Dark and Bias frames), followed by Lightroom.

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Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3509194
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy

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NGC 251 - Sculptor Galaxy

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