NGC 3359 (2025)

This is my version of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3359, located approximately 59 million light-years (LY) away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is slightly smaller than our own Milky Way at 108,500 LY across and has two prominent spiral arms with several dense star forming regions. I would have liked to get more than 2.3 hrs of data but if you read my post of my previous image, I was in the process activating my EdgeHD800 and having a humorous time with the stars. This image was after the collimation was adjusted and the focal reducer removed and although the stars do look better, they are not anything to write home about - they looked as if they were pinched somehow.

Originally, I thought it was because the dew heater ring was too tight on the corrector plate, however, a couple of people responded to a youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VY7m67G9S8&t=6s) I made about this issue with the suggestion that I was basically heating it too much. I used the AstroZap Dew Heater controller and had it set at 50% power but turned it down to 20% power and the problem went away. After fixing the issue over the next few days I moved on to another project.

Since only 2.3 hrs of data was collected for this image, it was quite noisy, however, the new noise reduction and other processing techniques we have available now do a great job at reducing the noise.

Higher Quality:

https://www.astrobin.com/llm27n/?nc=collection&nce=712

NGC 3359 (2025)
Dates: 3-27-25
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 93 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks, Bill's Stretching, GraXpert, Topaz Denoise

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NGC 3310 - Arp 217

This is my version NGC 3310 (a.k.a. Arp 217), a small starburst galaxy approximately 22,000 light-years (LY) across located about 46 million LY away in the constellation Ursa Major. Starburst galaxies are known for extensive star formation. It is believed that the intense star formation and unusual tidal streams were a result of a collision between NGC 3310 and one of its satellite galaxies that occurred 100 million years ago.

The background field that the galaxy resides in is rich in stars and there are many smaller galaxies as well, some of which I labelled. My favorite is the face-on spiral galaxy, PCG31652, located on the lower left side of the widefield image. The cropped image of NGC 3310 shows some very interesting structure especially within the tidal arcs above the spiral arms. There is one stream that crosses an arc perpendicularly resembling a bow and arrow and not surprisingly, NGC 3310 is nicknamed the Bow and Arrow galaxy.

For Some humor:
I imaged this by mistake as I broke out the Edge800 which has been patiently waiting for use since last year. In my rush to set that up on this target during the mainly cloudy chilly nights we have had, this target was on my mind when I dialed in the coordinates for this setup. I am not showing a C8 image since I attempted to culminate the scope at night on a star but I stink at that and the stars were really bad. The next day I decided to culminate the scope in the afternoon when it was warm and bright using the OCAL collimator which I love. While I was at it I removed the Celestron 0.7x Focal Reducer in order to image at F10 for the first time ever. Some have said (@Gary Imm 😄) that focal reducers whack out stars a bit so wanted to test that out as well. I went after this again that night and the stars were definitely better, BUT, the camera had so much dust on it that even with the new flats, the image looked as if it had a bad case of acne or poison ivy. The following day I spent cleaning the camera and ensuring the camera was getting clean by taking test flats at the same time. This method worked really well as the camera was never this clean - there are only two dust bunnies and that's it. Of course the weather turned for the worse and by the time it cleared I went to a different object with this setup.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/fwtrvk/?nc=collection&nce=712

NGC 3310 - Arp 217

Dates: 3-18-25, 3-21-25
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO R, G, B, L
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 93 x 90, R 60 x 90, G 49 x 90, B 60 x 90 (6h 33')
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1