NGC 3628 edge on spiral galaxy [Robotic, GMO_5, Colorado]

Known affectionately as the "Hamburger galaxy", this is an edge on spiral galaxy that is part of a small group of galaxies called the "Leo Triplet"

 

Its probably had gravitational interactions with the other 2 galaxies in the group which has resulted in a warping of the plane of the galaxy as seen towards the left hand edge.

 

Deeper images show a tail of stars from the right of the galaxy trailing off towards some of the other members but its just too faint here.

 

Cold galactic dust and hydrogen clouds are well seen edge on here, along with the glow of the galactic core and a peripheral blue edge from spiral arm stars.

 

In a way , not unlike the view we get of our Milky Way galaxy.

 

There is even a small, faint dwarf galaxy seen just above NGC3628, just like one of our own Magellanic cloud galaxies.

 

LRGB subs x 8 processed in PixInsight. Ive started to use selective colour masks which is working well for enhancing galactic cores and spiral arms whilst leaving everything else untouched. Used a little TGVDenoise just at the end for noise reduction in the background.

 

These are some test images from the new System 5 scope at Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado.

 

The system is:

 

Scope:

William Optics 12.5" Ritchey-Chrétien w/ 0.8x Reducer

Aperture: 317.5mm

Focal Length: 2032mm

Focal Ratio: f/6.4

 

Camera:

QHY600M 16-Bit Mono CMOS

Filters: LRGB, Ha, Oiii, Sii (by Chroma)

Pixel Size: 3.76 x 3.76

Done