CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE VIEW
Scope: C8 f/5.8;
Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA; 18 November, 2006; Camera:
Artemis285
Exposure: 12 x 240 sec Luminance exposures with IR Block Filter (bin 1x1);
6 x 120 sec RGB (bin 2x2)
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). G2V color calibration and Atmospheric Extinction
factors were applied to
the color channels for color correction. Selective sharpening with layer
mask was applied to galaxy features. Light background smoothing was applied to the luminance construction and the
final result using PS surface blur. Color balancing and final
touches were done in Photoshop. Final Image size is approximately
1392x1040.
North is down in this image (seems a more favorable presentation). NGC 253
is a galaxy located in the
constellation of Sculptor and is commonly known as the Sculptor Galaxy and it is
part of the relatively near Sculptor Galaxy Group. It is tight spiral galaxy that we view nearly face on. The
distance of NGC 253 to Earth is approximately 10 million light years. This
image replaces and earlier image that can be seen in the Archives
here. Horizontal FOV is about 26'
Image Center approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 00h 47m 33s Dec: -25°17'15"