NGC 2903 - composited on 2018-03-03
I have an updated version where I added some hydrogen-alpha data and reduced the blue tinge:
This is a stack of 23 images of NGC 2903, a barred spiral galaxy that is about 28 million light years away (Drozdovsky, I. O., & Karachentsev, I. D. 2000, A&AS, 142, 425). I originally thought, "Hey, here's a barred spiral, like the Milky Way is a barred spiral, so our galaxies are twinsies, right?" Wrong! NGC 2903 is a starburst galaxy - there is an enormous rate of star formation, especially within the central bar. Stellarium refers to this as an active galaxy, but that is incorrect. It does have several ultra-luminous X-ray binaries in the central region (Yukita, et al, ApJ, 758, 105, (2012)). There is a also an outflow of gas from the added energy of rapid star formation and X-ray binaries - this galaxy is losing material for making stars.
I have shot this numerous times, with exposures of typically 6 minutes and 8 minutes. The latest data, with better guiding, was taken in Lone Pine, CA on 2018-02-17 and has noticeably reduced how oblong the stars were from previous attempts. I may need to do a stack with only the better data, once I have more. (Yes, I'm sure I will shoot this again - it's one of my favorites.) Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Pre-processing in Nebulosity; stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
The center (J2000) of this image is at
RA 9h 32m 10s
DEC +21° 30' 24"
The image spans 47' x36'. North is toward the left and east is at the top.
NGC 2903 - composited on 2018-03-03
I have an updated version where I added some hydrogen-alpha data and reduced the blue tinge:
This is a stack of 23 images of NGC 2903, a barred spiral galaxy that is about 28 million light years away (Drozdovsky, I. O., & Karachentsev, I. D. 2000, A&AS, 142, 425). I originally thought, "Hey, here's a barred spiral, like the Milky Way is a barred spiral, so our galaxies are twinsies, right?" Wrong! NGC 2903 is a starburst galaxy - there is an enormous rate of star formation, especially within the central bar. Stellarium refers to this as an active galaxy, but that is incorrect. It does have several ultra-luminous X-ray binaries in the central region (Yukita, et al, ApJ, 758, 105, (2012)). There is a also an outflow of gas from the added energy of rapid star formation and X-ray binaries - this galaxy is losing material for making stars.
I have shot this numerous times, with exposures of typically 6 minutes and 8 minutes. The latest data, with better guiding, was taken in Lone Pine, CA on 2018-02-17 and has noticeably reduced how oblong the stars were from previous attempts. I may need to do a stack with only the better data, once I have more. (Yes, I'm sure I will shoot this again - it's one of my favorites.) Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Pre-processing in Nebulosity; stacking and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
The center (J2000) of this image is at
RA 9h 32m 10s
DEC +21° 30' 24"
The image spans 47' x36'. North is toward the left and east is at the top.