NGC 1291 in Eridanus

This unusual galaxy has two names, NGC 1291 and NGC 1269. It can be located in the constellation of Eridanus and is about 33 million light-years away. It has two interesting features; the first must be the beautiful rings presented almost face-on. Another is that the galaxy contains an inner bar at its core.

 

Two thin spiral arms making up the outer ring area have a blueish colouring that suggests they are relatively young and most likely have star formation occurring. As we move toward the centre, we transition towards a yellowish hue. This area comprises much older stars; most likely, star formation has stopped.

 

This dataset I collected was certainly dim. As a test, I didn’t bin the colour data like usual, and the resulting RGB dataset was challenging to work with. Honestly, the signal was very dim everywhere, including the luminance component. My goal was to reveal the inner features and dust lanes near the galaxy's core and the almost translucent rings that encircle the galaxy. I always love seeing galaxies off in the distance through the main object in any photograph, and there are several here.

 

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

 

Exposure Details

Lum 27 X900

Red 8 X900

Green 8 X900

Blue 12X900

Total Exposure: 13.75 Hours

 

Thanks for looking

 

Terry

 

 

 

Done