IC 4633 bathed in Integrated Flux Nebula

I initially set out to image IC4633 as a single target. It was a pleasant surprise to see this wonderful mosaic of galaxies behind a vale of Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN). IFN is pretty interesting stuff. A single star does not illuminate it. The dust is illuminated by the energy from the integrated flux of all-stars in the Milky Way. I have seen this in some of my earlier images, but not as intense as this. I think this is pretty cool. The slight pink hue was present no matter how many times I combined the data. Perhaps that is Ha glowing way. It almost looks like IC4633 (The largest galaxy in the frame) is bathed in smoke rising upwards. The two galaxies above it are IC4635 and PGC236037. Near the top is another galaxy with the catchy name PGC60085.

 

IC4633 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Apus, close to the southern celestial pole, and visible for most of the year from the Southern hemisphere. Its angular size is 1.853 1.149 arcmin (Simbad database), with a surface brightness of 23.98 mag/arcsec2, It is 69 million light-years away.

 

Exposure Details:

Red 31X600 Binned 2X2

Green 33X450 Binned 2X2

Blue 39X450 Binned 2X2

Lum 96X600 Binned 1X1

Total Exposure: 28.875 Hours

 

Instruments:

Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS

Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono

Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900

Focal Length: 2310.00 mm

Pixel size: 9.00 um

Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix

 

Thanks for looking

 

Done