NGC 1313 is a familiar galaxy to southern hemisphere imagers. It has been on my to-do list for some time, and it has been stuck in my processing loop longer than I wanted. Somehow, it was never quite right to my eye. But enough is enough; it's time to take it out of the oven; this is about as far as I want to go with this data set.
When I first looked at the initial data, I was amazed by the background dust present. I had this wacky, odd-looking galaxy that almost looked like it was rising out of dust. It is an interesting merger of dust and galaxy. Usually, I find dust can be a little distracting, but in this instance, I think it adds an additional level of impact and mystery to the image.
This galaxy was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on 27 September 1826. It has a diameter of about 50,000 light-years and is only 15 million light-years away. With an apparent size of 9.1 x 7.1 arcmin, it presents a target with a reasonable size for a galaxy and is worth the effort of capturing even in a modest-sized instrument. In cosmological scales, it is not that far. It appears to be an isolated galaxy with no neighbour and is not part of a group. It is unclear whether NGC 1313 has swallowed a small companion in the past, causing its asymmetry.
This galaxy is also known as the Topsy Turvy Galaxy. The most striking features are its overall uneven and ragged shape with scattered patches of intense star formation along its arms. This is unusual, with most of its star formation occurring within the dense, gassy regions scattered around the arms and not within the bar section. To mix things up a little more, the axis of rotation does not coincide with the central bar.
The name of a Topsy Turvy Galaxy is well deserved.
Exposure Details:- Red 24 X 450 Binned X2
- Green 31 X 450 Binned X2
- Blue 45 X 450 Binned X2
- Lum 75 X 900
- Ha 15 X 1200
Total Time: 36.25Instruments:- 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
Initial Lum after stack without processing. Lots of dust. That is so cool.
Thanks for looking.
Terry
Comments