Enchanted Skies

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NGC 4565, an Edge-On Spiral Galaxy (imaged near Fort Davis, TX)

NGC 4565 Map of the Region Near NGC 4565

 

Object Information                                            Imaging Details

NGC 4565 is a splendid edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. The galaxy is about 31 million l-y distant and positioned about 3 degrees from 4th magnitude gamma Comae Berenices in an otherwise fairly sparce portion of the sky. During his visit to Las Cruces and El Paso in 2005, John Dobson said NGC 4565 was among his favorite deep space objects.

NGC 4565 is about as wide as the first quarter moon (15 arc-minutes), so it is a fine object for visual observing. While visible in a modest-size telescope, the 10.6 magnitude galaxy really benefits from a larger aperture telescope.

This image was taken at the 2009 Texas Star Party. Transparency was Excellent; seeing was moderate.

Clicking the above image will bring up a wider field and slightly higher resoltuion image.

Telescope:
Celestron NexStar GPS 11"
Camera:
Canon 350D (modified)
Filter(s):
 
Misc. Optics:
Giant Easy Guider (f/5)
Exposures:
33 x 3 minutes @ ISO 1600
Guiding:
Through an Orion ED80 (f/15) using GuideDog software and a ToUCam.
Processing:
Images aligned and stacked with Nebulosity. Curves/levels adjustments with Photoshop CS3. Noise reduction performed with Noise Ninja.

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Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)