Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3185  ·  NGC 3187  ·  NGC 3189  ·  NGC 3193
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Hickson 44 LRGB, Norman Hey
Hickson 44 LRGB
Powered byPixInsight

Hickson 44 LRGB

Revision title: cropped area processed separately from main image

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Hickson 44 LRGB, Norman Hey
Hickson 44 LRGB
Powered byPixInsight

Hickson 44 LRGB

Revision title: cropped area processed separately from main image

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Hickson 44, also catalogued as Arp 316, is a galaxy group in Leo, with 4 member galaxies. At least two of them show evidence of interaction, with the twisted shape of NGC 3187 the most obvious. NGC 3190 is the warped edge-on spiral to its left, estimated to be about 75,000 lightyears in diameter, or about 3/4 the size of the Milky Way. The elliptical above that is NGC3193 and the smaller ring-shaped barred spiral below is NGC 3185. The cluster lies about 20 kpc from us. Several smaller smudges are seen, representing galaxies much further than Hickson 44. 

This galaxy group is a challenge for my 130 mm f/6.5 refractor under Bortle 7 skies. Imaged over several nights; some long-neglected guiding issues improved with expert advice from PHD guiding help service. Thanks, Brian! 

I found processing this image to be more of a challenge than acquiring data! Processed in PixInsight, requiring significant use of NoiseXterminator to help with the faint halos around 3190 and 3185, as I had to stretch the data retty hard to start to see the galactic halos. Collateral damage shows up as halos around several of the brighter stars likely made worse by high cloud on at least one night. Using GAME masks and Curves, modest reduction of these star halos was achieved. Using the wide field L and RGB images as a source for cropped images from matching previews, the cropped image was processed differently, so direct comparison between images does reveal some small differences attributable to the different processing paths, none of which will make up for a need for more total integration. Given weather conditions lately, this will have to wait for another opportunity.

Comments

Revisions

  • Hickson 44 LRGB, Norman Hey
    Original
  • Final
    Hickson 44 LRGB, Norman Hey
    B

B

Title: cropped area processed separately from main image

Description: same preview in L and RGB used to create new image that could be processed separately as a control/trial version for comparison

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Hickson 44 LRGB, Norman Hey