M108 in Ursa Major

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Scope: C8 f/8; Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA;  14 March 2009; Camera: Artemis285

Exposure: 10 x 6 min Luminance exposure (bin 1x1) and 8 x 6 min (bin 2x2) with IR/UV Block Filter; 7 x 3 min RGB (bin 2x2)

Processing: Images were captured Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked and dark subtracted in Astroart with Sigma Combine.  Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. All  2x2 bin combined stacks were up-sampled to 1392x1040 (1x1 bin resolution).  Channels were co-registered in Astroart. The 6 minute IR block exposures were used for the main luminance construction with level adjustments and curves to bring out object features.   LRGB combine was done in Photoshop.  A light background noise reduction was done with PixInsight LE (SGBNR).  Selective sharpening was applied to galaxy features. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.

This image was guided; North is up. M108 is a nearly 'edge on' galaxy.  Its structure is somewhat chaotic and from Earth's perspective, lacks a central bulge. There are also two very small and faint galaxies that can be seen to the lower right of M108. M108 is estimated to be about 45 million light years distant from Earth. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen here.  Horizontal FOV is 19'.

Image Center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 11h 11m 31s Dec: +55°40'15" 

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

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