CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE VIEW (7820x5290)

Scope: Celestron 9.25 Edge HD 235 mm at f/7; Location: DAA Observatory, Shelter Valley, CA;  Dates:  7, 8 May 2024; Camera: ASI294MM (Baader  LRGB Filters)

Exposure:   Lum 124 x 3.5. minutes (gain-160 2x2), RGB - 32 each x 2 minutes  - (gain-121 2x2).

Processing: Data Collection -  N.I.N.A. (as FITs).  Sub-frame calibration - Pixinsight (WBPP). Sub-frame  registration and integration (Average combine -  Linear fit clipping,  2X drizzle for  Lum) - PixInsight (WBPP).  Noise reduction - NoiseXTerminator (RGB, Lum) - PixInsight.  Non-linear stretching for Lum - PixInsight. RGB combine and stretching, Photometric RGB calibration (SPCC)  - PixInsight. De-convolution - BlurXTerminator (AI4) - PixInsight. Generation of starless  Lum  image for later processing - StarXTerminator  (PixInsight.)  Lum stars (lower stretch) screened into Lum starless  for star size control - PixInsight.  Luminance  combined to RGB image - Pixinsight. Final finishing  - Affinity Photo.  Annotation - PixInsight, Aladin (Simbad), and Affinity Photo. This image is an LRGB image.  Image processed at 8288x5644 resolution (2x drizzle stacks). Full Field image size is approximately 7820x5290.

North is right in this image. This is NGC 5906/5907  - an edge-on spiral galaxy [SA(s)c? edge-on]. Its distance is estimated at 34 - 48 million light years. It is also part of a galaxy pair (Holm 704A) with KUG 1513+566 (Holm 704B) - a very much smaller galaxy. NGC 5907 is known for its tidal streams that were studied in detail by Martinez-Delgado et al. in their 2008 paper. They provide observational and modeling evidence that the streams are fossilized remains of an ancient dwarf galaxy's accretion into NGC 5907. This image captures  (vary faintly) some of the streams their paper identified -the "SE loop" (predominant stream in this image - above NGC5907) as well as part of the "SW tail" (below NGC 5907). Their study defined a total of eight stream components.

Also in this image field are numerous background galaxies - one of which is KUG 1516+568  that is also about the same distance as that of NGC 5907 (and the galaxy pair Holm 704). The mouse-over starless image shows many of these distant background galaxies (isolated from the MW galaxy stars). There are numerous Quasars as well - all  fairly bright (brighter than Mag 20). The furthest is SDSS J151654.46+563748.3 with a light travel time (Lookback) of 11.41 billion years. These objects, information, and some of the brighter stars are identified in the annotated image.   

This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal Full FOV is approximately 0.664 degrees. Full size image scale is approximately 0.305 arcsec/pix.

Image center approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 15h 16m 00s Dec: +56°21'34"