NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) in Centaurus

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Scope: C8  f/6, Location: Laguna Mountains, CA   20 May 2006  Camera: Artemis285

Exposure: 8 x 240 sec Luminance exposures with IR block, 6 x 120 sec (2x2 bin) RGB exposures.

Processing: Images were captured in Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance and Color channels were numerically scaled and  color balanced in Astroart.  Channels were co-registered in Astroart.  Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to optimize object features.  Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB).  I had performed a "G2V" star color calibration on my RGB filters and applied the correction factors in this image (fairly minor adjustment). This object is low on my Northern Hemisphere location (about 12 degree altitude), so I applied color correction for atmospheric extinction of shorter wavelengths (Blue / Green) taking into account extinction rates at the elevation (2000 meters) at the observing site. See This Page  for examples of the effect of "G2V" and Extinction factor corrections. Selective sharpening with layer mask was applied to galaxy the dust lane.  Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth  background noise on the  luminance construction and the final result. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.

North is to the Left in this image. The image was guided for all exposures. NGC 5128 is a unique galaxy in that it has a distinct dust lane girdling its diameter. It is believed to be the remnant of a spiral galaxy that was merged into the elliptical galaxy NGC 5128. NGC 5128 is a strong source of radio frequency radiation. It  is relatively close at  about 15 million light years distant from Earth.   Horizontal FOV is 25'

Image center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 13h 25m 29s Dec: -43°00'58"

All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003 - 2012

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