NGC 2146 Dusty Hand Galaxy in RGBHa
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 5:15 pm
NGC 2146 is an atypical barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis close to Polaris. This galaxy is also called Dusty Hand Galaxy because of the shape of a skeletal hand in the core.
It is located about 70 million light-years away and its typical shape was caused by a near collision with another galaxy about 0.8 billion years ago. The culprit is likely NGC 2146a.
This near collision has resulted in NGC 2146 becoming a so-called starbust galaxy: new stars are being formed at a relatively fast rate.
That is why I also did captures with the Optolong L-eNhance filter to see if I could also capture and process some Ha of that star formation and that worked out reasonably well: a few red areas at the top right of the core and in the rim itself.
It could have been much more but the only (almost cloudless) moment was on the night of January 17/18 with of course a 95% moon high in the sky
Last month I was able to make the RGB shots between the clouds on 3 different nights. A total of 6:40 hours of data.
The 3000px version can be seen here: https://i.ibb.co/JcrSdYt/NGC-2146-RGBHa.jpg
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Optolong L-eNhance filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro / White balance R50 B50
Baarder IR/UV Cut: 50 x 300 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Optolong L-eNhance: 15 x 600 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
20 x darks. And 50x flats + 50x darkflats per filter
Stacked with SiriL
Crop and Histogram
Photoshop: Ha in Red channel mixed, Camera Raw Filter (blacks, clarity, contrast, color, noise reduction), resolution to 3000px.
It is located about 70 million light-years away and its typical shape was caused by a near collision with another galaxy about 0.8 billion years ago. The culprit is likely NGC 2146a.
This near collision has resulted in NGC 2146 becoming a so-called starbust galaxy: new stars are being formed at a relatively fast rate.
That is why I also did captures with the Optolong L-eNhance filter to see if I could also capture and process some Ha of that star formation and that worked out reasonably well: a few red areas at the top right of the core and in the rim itself.
It could have been much more but the only (almost cloudless) moment was on the night of January 17/18 with of course a 95% moon high in the sky
Last month I was able to make the RGB shots between the clouds on 3 different nights. A total of 6:40 hours of data.
The 3000px version can be seen here: https://i.ibb.co/JcrSdYt/NGC-2146-RGBHa.jpg
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Optolong L-eNhance filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro / White balance R50 B50
Baarder IR/UV Cut: 50 x 300 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Optolong L-eNhance: 15 x 600 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
20 x darks. And 50x flats + 50x darkflats per filter
Stacked with SiriL
Crop and Histogram
Photoshop: Ha in Red channel mixed, Camera Raw Filter (blacks, clarity, contrast, color, noise reduction), resolution to 3000px.