Friday, April 20, 2018

NGC 3344 - Sliced Onion Galaxy

NGC 3344 (a.k.a. Sliced Onion Galaxy) is a barred spiral galaxy located 22.5 million light years away in the constellation Leo Minor. Although it appears to be a relatively isolated galaxy, it is on the Leo branch of the Virgo Supercluster. The image shows the yellowish core which is made up of older stars. Younger blue stars and reddish nebula regions make up the arms but that is beyond my resolving power of my equipment (source: wikipedia, APOD).

To me it does not look like a sliced onion but I am not the person who comes up with names.  Like my images of NGC 2903 and Hickson-44, this object is a stretch with my set up. I imaged this over two nights, the first night being much better.  In fact I was not going to use the second nights data at all but after processing it it did result in a better image.  Also, I logged in more time with Astrophotography Tools (APT) for capturing the image the second night.

Crop 2

Crop 1

 Wide Field

NGC 3344 - Sliced Onion Galaxy
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 04-17-18, 4-18-18
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ (HEQ5)
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 45 x 90s, 37 x 90s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 2 C, 4 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

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