20211216/21 - NGC7331 & NGC7318 (PEG) - The Deer lick Group and Stephen’s Quintet - A crowd of galaxies … through a thick fog and a full moon
What’s in the picture(s)
The Deer Lick Group (top left) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7331Quote: “
NGC 7331, also known as
Caldwell 30, is an
unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million
light-years (12
Mpc) away in the
constellationPegasus. It is the brightest galaxy in the field of a visual grouping known as the
NGC 7331 Group of galaxies.
The galaxy is similar in size and structure to the
Milky Way, and is sometimes referred to as "the Milky Way's twin". However, discoveries in the 2000s regarding the structure of the Milky Way may call this similarity into doubt, particularly because the latter is now believed to be a barred spiral. In spiral galaxies the central bulge typically co-rotates with the disk but the bulge in the galaxy NGC 7331 is rotating in the
opposite direction to the rest of the disk. In both visible light and infrared photos of the NGC 7331, the core of the galaxy appears to be slightly off-center, with one side of the disk appearing to extend further away from the core than the opposite side.”
Stephen’s Quintet (Center) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan%27s_QuintetQuote: “
Stephan's Quintet is a visual grouping of five
galaxies of which four form the first
compact galaxy group ever discovered.
Four of the five galaxies in Stephan's Quintet form a physical association, a true
galaxy group,
Hickson Compact Group 92, and will likely merge with each other. “
What was the experience
I always wanted to check how “deep” into space I could go with my TS140. Although I have an elaborate table that gives me the expected image size for my scope/camera-sensor combination, I knew that going after a single distant galaxy would perhaps be reaching too far, any Galaxy only appearing as a smudge of a couple of pixels wide on the image … Unless you’ve got a whole pack of them together, like these two neighbouring groups. On top of that, it contains what was once considered the twin sister of our own Milky Way
The number of Clear Skies at night was non-existent these last 2 months. I only had the one night last week, which also had a full moon, and even that was eventually swamped by a thick fog. Not the kind of night you would even bother to bring out the scope. Desperate for some star-light in my eyes, I didn’t stand down.
Surprisingly, the scope did manage to pick up some starlight through the fog, although none could be seen with the naked eye.
The image quality is heavily impacted by this thick fog, a full moon and a lack of data because the object is now gradually moving out of my sight, blocked by the house.
These images are low grade quality, very noisy with a blotchy background … This is not the kind of stuff to show off … but, my approach is not to show my ‘best’ pictures, but to show my ‘learning journey’. And as a trip on the yellow brick road … I hope this counts 😎
How it was done
Scope: TS-140 APO (FL 910mm)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Photons: 300s LRGB 8x 13x 9x 9x
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
What have I learned from this
The subs were miserable, a bit ‘foggy’ to say the least. Why would I even bother to process this ? …. Because you learn from the difficult obstacles on the rocky road, not from the smooth sailing.
Hardly enough data, and the quality was well below ‘low grade’ (‘noisy’ is even too good a word). But … I tried to squeeze out whatever I could.
Don’t judge me on the quality of the image, but on the learning and the perseverance instead …. There’s always something to learn …
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
Follow me @astrowaut
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