This little jewel nestled in the dust clouds of Cepheus is one of my favorites. A much longer exposure is needed to bring out the faint dust (>10 hours). In reality, this galaxy pair lies in the cosmic background outside our galaxy, at an estimated distance of 100 million light years.The dwarf spiral galaxy appears to be illuminated by the 8th magnitude star nearby. It is believed to interact with the elliptical galaxy on the lower-left. This is on my list for a deeper exposure.
Technical specs:
Optics: AT12 RC astrograph @ f/8 Camera: QHY9M CCD Filters: Orion 2'' LRGB Mount: AP900 GTO Guider: Meade DSI Pro II
Focus: Robofocus Software: CCD Commander, Maxim DL, FocusMax, Photoshop CC 2014, Pixinsight 1.8
Date: RGB: 10/4/2016 L: 10/3/16,10/4/2016 Exposure: L: 12x900'' bin1 RGB: 6x300''each bin2 Total integration: 4.5 hours
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