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NGC 3628 in Leo

 

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Scope: C8 f/8; Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA;  14 March 2009; Camera: Artemis285

Exposure: 8 x 6 min Luminance exposure (bin 1x1) and 8 x 6 min (bin 2x2) with IR/UV Block Filter; 7 x 3 min RGB (bin 2x2)

Processing: Images were captured Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked and dark subtracted in Astroart with Sigma Combine.  Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. All  2x2 bin combined stacks were up-sampled to 1392x1040 (1x1 bin resolution).  Channels were co-registered in Astroart. The 6 minute IR block exposures were used for the main luminance construction with level adjustments and curves to bring out object features.   LRGB combine was done in Photoshop.  A light background noise reduction was done with PixInsight LE (SGBNR).  Selective sharpening was applied to galaxy features. A light surface blur was the final process step on the image. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.

This image was guided; North is up. NGC 3628 is an  'edge on' galaxy.  The core of this galaxy is obscured by the broad equatorial band of dust it contains. A central bulge is evident seen edge on but the brighter center is blocked. NGC 3628 is part of the M66 galaxy group - otherwise known as the Leo Trio. A very wide field image of the Leo Trio was taken with a DSLR camera this same night. The Leo Trio Wide Field image can bee seen here.  NGC 3628 is estimated to be about 35 million light years distant from Earth. This image of NGC 3628 replaces an earlier image that can be seen here.  Horizontal FOV is 19'.

Image Center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 11h 20m 16.2s Dec: +13°35'22" 

 

All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003 - 2012

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