This image is an LRGB composite of a galaxy field in the constellation Lacerta.  All of the subs were acquired in my Bortle 4+ backyard between 7/25/22 and 8/28/22; total integration time is 14.13 hours.  The luminance channel comprises about 8 hours of 5-minute exposures taken in Mode 3, with Gain 14, Offset 10, using the QHY268M camera.  6.13 hours of RGB data were acquired with Baader 36 mm LRGB filters using the same camera in Mode 1, Gain 56, offset 10.  Due to a few too many passing clouds, I opted for 4-minute RGB subs in High Gain mode this time.  When I have completely clear skies, I have been shooting 10-minute RGB subs in Mode 3 (extended Fullwell 2CMS) for galaxy imaging, and the results seem better.  I would have lost way too many 10-minute subs with the recent weather pattern, so I had to go shorter this time.   All stacks were drizzled 2x to achieve the image scale of 0.7” per pixel, and the image was cropped to frame the galaxies well.

The brightest galaxy in the image is NGC 7265.  There are a total of six galaxies in this image that are listed with NGC numbers as described below, plus several others that are worth mentioning.  It has often been said that small refractors are not the ideal tool for imaging smaller galaxies, but my Esprit 100ED has been doing just fine over the past 8 months with the QHY268M camera.  The small (3.76 um) pixels and 2x drizzle provide a final image scale of 0.7” per pixel, which is fine enough for my tastes.  Now that late summer has arrived, the only time of year where I have good to excellent seeing at my location, the C11 EdgeHD will be making an appearance later this month while the Esprit gets a rest.

Rather than writing a lot about each galaxy in this image, I have provided links to Courtney Seligman’s descriptions of the NGC objects.  The remaining information was retrieved from SIMBAD through the “Aladin Lite” website hosted at Université de Strasbourg, which is a wonderful resource for identifying faint fuzzies in deep sky images.

In the upper left corner is NGC 7263, a magnitude 14.6 lenticular galaxy.  https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7263

The edge-on galaxy with the weak dust lane is NGC 7264, a magnitude 13.8 type Sb(?)=MsoNormalspiral galaxy that measures about 2.2’ by 0.35’.  https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7264

The brightest galaxy in this field is NGC7265, a magnitude 12.1 lenticular galaxy, measuring 2.1’ by 1.8‘, which has at least two outer shells besides its core.      https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7265

The nearby companion to NGC 7265 is UGC 12007, a mag. 15.3 type Sb spiral that perhaps surprisingly did not receive an NGC designation.

At the lower center of the frame is NGC 7273, a magnitude 13.8 lenticular galaxy of type S0(?) that measures about of about 0.85’ by 0.6.’  https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7273

To the right of NGC 7273 is the larger, brighter NGC 7274, a magnitude 12.8 elliptical galaxy of type E2(?) about 1.65’ by 1.3’.  https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7274

The rightmost of the three brighter galaxies near the bottom of the frame is NGC 7275, a magnitude 14.3 spiral galaxy that measures about 0.95’ by 0.2.’ https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc72a.htm#7275

Near the center of the frame is a small spiral galaxy denoted LEDA 2075294, which is only about 0.65’ by 0.55’ in size, according to SIMBAD.

The irregular, blue-tinted galaxy near the top center of the frame is UGC 12005, perhaps the most interesting object in this image.  A Type SB spiral, it measures about 0.72’ by 0.31’ according to SIMBAD.  How this galaxy got classified as SB rather than irregular is a mystery to me, but perhaps my undersized optics did not reveal enough detail to portray its structure faithfully. 

The two galaxies in the upper right hand corner are UGC 12012 and 2MASX J22225288+3545512.