Have you ever taken a photo of a cityscape at night from a tall vantage point through a window, only to forget to turn off that pesky flash? That’s how I felt while processing this data set. A honking bright point of light in front of the galaxy. Really, what did the Vogon Constructer Fleet think when they placed this star in front of such a pretty object? Hummmm
This is NGC 45 located in the constellation of Cetus, approximately 22 million light years away. It is situated close to the celestial equator making it mostly visible from both hemispheres. It has a low surface brightness and lacks clearly defined spiral arms like our galaxy, The Milky Way.
It was a challenging image to process. That bright star has a massive halo around it, spreading into the NGC 45. A closer investigation will reveal many galaxies in the background. That’s the stuff I like, all those tiny galaxies highlighting the vastness of the cosmos. Check out the galaxy behind NGC 45. That's pretty cool.
Instruments:- Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
- Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
- Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
- Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
- Pixel size: 9.00 um
- Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposure Details:- Red 18X600
- Green 21X600
- Blue 23X600
- Lum 54X900
Total Exposure: 23.8 hours
Thanks for looking
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