NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy (Paul O’Brien)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: Helix Galaxy · NGC 2685

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NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

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NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

This project was a collaboration with a friend of mine in Tucson, Alan Rockowitz. This galaxy is the most unusual and fascinating one I've captured to date. NGC 2685 is a polar-ring galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. This type of galaxy is extremely rare - of the 1-2 trillion galaxies thought to be in the universe, there are only 100 known polar-ring ones. There is considerable debate about how polar-ring galaxies are formed but the most accepted theory seems to be that two galaxies collided violently up to 1 billion years ago, which tore stars, dust and other material from one to the other. The captured material formed a rotating ring around the surviving galaxy. The dark dust lanes and blue star groups rotating around the core of the Helix are clearly visible.

I used a TEC 140ED paired with a QHY600M and Alan an iStar 140 with a ASI 2600M. We both used 10Micron GM1000 mounts. 20 hours of 60 and 120sec subs, unguided, processed in PixInsight.

QHYCCD QHY600 Images
TEC140 Refractor
Pacific Northwest Astrophotographers

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7610942
PixInsight job	0E3X2FQ4YNLZZFAB6WEJ0UERJQ9VL3QX
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	08h55m35s.238
RA (top/left)	08h54m37s.150
RA (top/right)	08h56m36s.497
RA (bottom/right)	08h56m33s.565
RA (bottom/left)	08h54m33s.560

Dec (center)	+58°44′04″.83
Dec (top/left)	+58°37′53″.33
Dec (top/right)	+58°38′26″.95
Dec (bottom/right)	+58°50′13″.70
Dec (bottom/left)	+58°49′39″.67

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NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

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NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

NGC 2685 - The Helix Galaxy

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