Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  NGC 5981  ·  NGC 5982  ·  NGC 5985
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NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers
NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio
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NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985 Draco Trio

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers
NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985 Draco Trio

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Description

The Draco Trio is a nice geometric, line-of-sight pairing of 3 galaxies. The trio is composed of 2 spiral galaxies and an ellipical. NGC 5981 is the smaller, edge on spiral, residing (counterintuitively) closest to us at a distance of 100 million light years. Next closest is NGC 5985, the face-on spiral at 120 Mly. NGC 5982 is the final galaxy in the trio. It's an interesting elliptical (not often said!) residing at a distance of 130 Mly. What's interesting about NGC 5982 is that it has been found to have many shells of stars (up to 26). These are thought to be caused by mergers with other smaller galaxies. A supermassive black hole resides at the core of NGC 5982.

In this image, at least 5 separate shells are visible in NGC 5982. The edge-on spiral exhibits a dust lane, and the face-on spiral has nice structure, with blue arms and a reddened core. The field is littered with smaller, more distant galaxies. This image was initially captured at the TAAA CAC dark site in southern AZ, but significantly more frames were added at home in western NM.

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  • NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers
    Original
  • NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers
    C
  • Final
    NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers
    D

C

Description: SPCC, BXT, and GHS changes, plus a slightly tighter crop.

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D

Description: Raised integration time to 9.75 hours @ f/2.2, and eliminated some lesser subs along the way. Also cropped the image a bit tighter to show off the added detail in the core of the larger face on spiral NGC 5985.

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NGC 5982, NGC 5981, NGC 5985  Draco Trio, Doug Summers