NGC6872 and Friends

NGC6872, discovered in 1835 by English astronomer John Herschel, is a large barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pavo. It is approximately 212 million light-years from Earth and is believed to be five billion years old. It is interacting with the lenticular galaxy IC 4970, which is apparently less than one twelfth as large.

 

This is an extremely small, distant object, that needs a lot more imaging time to do it justice. It is infact the most distant object we have imaged. The night started off well, but by midnight there were 50km per hour gusts of wind which put an end to the night, and I was only able to get 4 hours. I am still very happy with how it turned out.

 

Equipment Details:

•6 Inch GSO Ritchey-Chretien (RC) F9 1370mm Focal length

•Skywatcher NEQ6 Mount

•ZWO ASI1600mm Cmos Camera cooled to -10'c

•ZWO EFW7 Filter Wheel

•Baader 36mm unmounted L, R, G and B

•Orion ST80 80mm Guide Scope

•ZWO ASI120mm mini Guide Camera

•ZWO ASIAIR Pro for full automation

 

Exposure Details:

•L 20X180 seconds - Bin 1x1

•R 20X180 seconds - Bin 1x1

•G 20X180 seconds - Bin 1x1

•B 20X180 seconds - Bin 1x1

 

Total Integration Time: 4 hours

Done