Prelude to view the image: Viewing shared images on computers oozes frail, to say the least. Not only are color renderings highly variable, even on “calibrated” monitors it varies, but resolution varies all over the place. HD monitors marginally hold the edge on abundance, worldwide. HD has a resolution of 1360 in the horizontal, hence I have downsampled the Image A to that technologically arcane level. OK, so, you should zoom the picture to 1:1…one pixel in the image equals one picture on the screen. More zoom than that, and you may see pixelation. “May”? Yes, still more issues. Say your HD monitor has a 16”-wide display. You should view from a distance of 3.3ft for optimal viewing. Closer than that and it’s pixelation for you! However, I suspect that most viewers of Astrobin have higher-resolution monitors, maybe something like QHD with 1440pixels vertically. Not allowing for some Astrobin banner-space, I have posted an image with about 1400 pixels vertically to approximately accommodate the 1:1 image view for a QHD, as image C (‘Final’). So, at full resolution, on QHD, the picture should be viewed at about 2.5ft from the monitor.

In making the image, I took viewing into account, expecting, of course, everyone to know the characteristics and optimal viewing conditions of their displays. I made the image at its maximum resolution then saved it for viewing and printing. (Printing has more issues that tie pixel density to apparent sharpness through viewing-distance considerations.) Yes, I spent several days researching all this stuff and would be glad to share some references if any of you are as anal as I.

NGC 6744

OTA: CDK17

Camera: SBIG STXL11002with AOX and FW8G (0.63 arsec/pxl)

Observatory: Heaven’s Mirror, Chile

EXPOSURES:

Red: 15 x 1200 sec.

Blue: 14 x 1200

Green: 14 x 1200

H: 21 x 1800

Total exposure ~29 hours

Image Width: ~33 arc-minutes

Processed by Alex Woronow (2020) using PixInsight, Skylum, Topaz, SWT

NGC 6744, at a declination of -64 degrees, has been tagged as “similar to our Milky Way Galaxy.” However, it is about twice the size of our Galaxy and lacks the barred structure that the Milky Way most likely displays. NGC 6744 lies about 30M light-years away, and if you want to get a feeling for how distant and small it appears from the earth, try this video: https://www.eso.org/public/usa/videos/eso1118a/. The spiral arms of NGC 6744 contain a great amount of gas and dust, and star formation abounds. This image shows some of the light from very young blue stars that often stimulate the hydrogen gas, which then glows red or illuminates those molecular clouds that reflect the blue light. A companion galaxy (NGC 5744A) appears at about 7:00 in the image and probably contributes to the star-formation activity through gravitational disruptions of the clouds.



The constellation Pavo, the Peacock, hosts this galaxy. Pavo is a member of a group of constellations

known, collectively, as the “Southern Birds,” which includes Grus (Crane), Phoenix, and Tucana. The constellations’ boundaries were established by Petrus Plancius, in the late 1500s, who gleaned the star-data from the observations by earlier Dutch explorers.