NGC 3628 - Cetin BAL - GSM: + 90 05366063183

Characteristics:
Magnitude: 9.5
Size: about 13' in length
Distance: 35 million light years
RA: 11h 20m 34s
Dec: 13 degrees 34' 21"

Description:
NGC 3628 is an edge-on galaxy that was discovered by William Herschel. It is the faintest of the Leo Triplet group and was evidently missed by Messier. This galaxy is best known for its highly detailed central dust lane, as well as its mishapen periphery, felt to be a result of interaction with nearby galaxies M65 and M66. On the higher magnification view, notice the numerous tiny galaxies present in this FOV. The asteroid Eunike was coursing through this field in the upper right hand portion of the image during exposure- most of the asteroid trail was rejected during the Sigma combine, and I cloned out the residual for aesthetic purposes. This represents the first light image from my new Takahashi FS-102, which yields a FOV of 37' x 50' and an image scale of 2.15 arcsec/pixel at f6 with the SXV-H9 camera.

Photographic Details:
Date: March 13, 2005.
Scope: Takahashi FS-102 at f6 with TOA-130 focal reducer, on the G11 Losmandy Mount.
Autoguider: SBIG STV with e-finder.
Camera: SXV-H9
Filter: Astronomik Type II R, G, B, plus clear filter set.
Exposures: L:R:G:B. 120' for Luminance, unbinned; 20' each for R, G, and B, binned 2 x 2.
Conditions: Temperature 28 degrees F; average transparency; average seeing; a few passing clouds.

Post-processing: No darks, although bias-subtracted flats were used for this image. Alignment done in Maxim. Sigma combined using RC Sigma Reject Plug-in for MaximDL. DDP was performed in ImagesPlus (IP). Subsequent levels and curves adjustments in

Photoshop CS (16 bit format). I used the Dynamic Background Extraction tool (DBE) of PixInsight to correct for color gradients in the RGB image, prior to combining with luminance.