The Box, galaxy group Hickson 61 (HCG 61)

 Posted: Sep 16th, 2020
Show astrometry on hover
NGC
IC
HD
Technical Info
Telescope/Lens: 8" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain CPC800 GPS (XLT)
Camera: Starlight Xpress Trius SX694
Mount: equatorial wedge
Guide Scope: Baader 61x250mm
Guide Camera: ASI120MM
Software: MaxIm DL6, PHD2, PixInsight, StarTools, Photoshop CC, Zoner photo studio 14
Accessories: reducer Starizona 0.75x, filters Astrodon LRGB E-series gen.2
Exposure:
72 x 300" ISO/Gain: 0 - Astrodon L
12 x 600" ISO/Gain: 0 - Astrodon R
12 x 600" ISO/Gain: 0 - Astrodon G
12 x 600" ISO/Gain: 0 - Astrodon B
Yellow zoneLight Pollution:
 Chervonograd, Ukraine
 Sep 15th, 2020
12 h 0 m
2154
The Box, galaxy group Hickson 61 (HCG 61) in the constellation Coma Berenices.
The bluish spiral at the top is NGC 4173 and the edge-on galaxy next to it is NGC 4175. The smallest galaxy, at the bottom, is NGC 4174 and the last one (an elliptical) is NGC 4169. The bluish NGC 4173 is only about 50 million light years distant while the other three are at a distance of about 180 million light years, indicating that NGC 4169, 4174, and 4175 are likely to be physically related while NGC 4173 is definitely a foreground object.

This image taken in May, June 2019.
L-channel - 72 x 300 sec. bin 1x1;
R-channel - 12 x 600 sec. bin 1x1;
G-channel - 12 x 600 sec. bin 1x1;
B-channel - 12 x 600 sec. bin 1x1.
Total integration time - 12:00 hours.
Resolution: 2111x1709 px
Scale: 2749 KB
Add comment

Comments

Nice. Do you crop the field a lot with the corrector? I'm curious how much it corrects the field at the edges. I was thinking of getting one myself instead of the Meade. But with Starizona, only pre-orders are available for the 0.63x right now.
18 Sep, 2020 Reply
Boris_us5wu Replied to Bogdan
Thanks, Bogdan! My sensor diagonal is only 15mm, so the 0.75x reducer corrects this field perfectly. Moreover, backfocus error can be up to 3mm without degrading the corners. This image is almost a full frame (stacking artifacts cropped) and resized to about 85% of the original. I remember shooting with a Canon 1100D, and the field was also flat with round stars in the corners.
18 Sep, 2020 Reply

Comments are available only to registered users. Register or log in to leave a comment.