NGC 891, Edge-on Galaxy in Andromeda

[AndyG]

NGC 891 is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 27 million light-years distant in Andromeda, with a prominent lane of dark dust in the galactic disk. The unusual filaments of dust extending away from the galactic disk are believed to be caused by supernova explosions. If there are any astronomers in NGC 891, they can't see our Milky Way galaxy since we are obscured by the interstellar dust in NGC 891. Wikipedia

I am pleased with how this one came out compared with my last attempt at this target.

[AndyG]

Thanks, Bill. You can click the image to go to a page with the technical details and higher resolution versions.

[Apollo XX]

Love it! Not only did the darker skies help to improve this image over your last one, but the larger scale through the bigger scope is awesome too.

[AstroGeek]

Andy,

This is an awesome, close-up view of NGC 891.
I'm curious, however, as there seems to be no luminance channel. As highly-detailed as this image is, do you think luminance would have boosted the resolution even more?

Steve

[Bruce D]

Simply spectacular Andy!

[AndyG]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

there seems to be no luminance channel. As highly-detailed as this image is, do you think luminance would have boosted the resolution even more?

Lately I've been experimenting with shooting just RGB bin 1 rather than RGB bin 2 + Lum bin 1, and I'm beginning to conclude it is working out better that way for me. Ron and I were discussing it here.

With the RGB bin 2 + Lum bin 1 method, I was struggling with chrominance noise since I tended not to take enough RGB bin 2 subs. I was never quite sure about whether or not I had the right balance of Lum vs RGB subs and I tended to take too many Lum subs.

With the RGB bin 1 method I now create a synthetic Luminance by combining the RGB masters. That way the luminance and chrominance noise are automatically balanced.

[AstroGeek]

Andy,

Thanks for your explanation about RGB vs LRGB. It makes sense and obviously your results are remarkable. My next project will be a two-panel mosaic of the Pleiades and I think that I will give your method a try.

Just waiting for the moon to move along...

Steve

[NGC7000]

Spectacular, Andy. That is such an impressive image.

Tom

[mrgizmo65]

Andy you never cease to amaze us all with your skills and the use of your equipment as allways thank you for sharing