NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

[AndyG]

Also known as the Silver Dollar Galaxy, this is a bright galaxy, 8.0 apparent magnitude. It is located in the constellation Sculptor, and astronomers estimate its distance to be 11-12 million light years. It is a starburst galaxy, undergoing active star formation. [Wikipedia]

At declination -25 degrees, the object only rises to about 32 degrees above the horizon at the observatory, and here at home it never gets above 22 degrees.

[rjbokleman]

Another nice one! Congrats!

[DonB]

What a beautiful image. As you say, "a pretty picture". Thanks,

Don

[Bruce D]

Splendid Andy, thanks for sharing! Hey you might catch a few interesting objects from the remote that we can't quite see from home...

[NGC7000]

That is simply stunning, Andy. Another gem!

Tom

[mark.m]

Beautiful, Andy.

As I look across your images, it looks like the diffraction spikes aren't always at the same angle relative to the CCD. Are you able to rotate the camera remotely? Or is that something that requires hands-on adjustment?

- Mark Munkacsy

[AndyG]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

Hey you might catch a few interesting objects from the remote that we can't quite see from home...

Yeah, I get about 10 more degrees of elevation for Southern targets from down there which is nice. No trees to worry about either! On the other hand, I decided to keep the scope below the level of the wall to shelter it from the wind and that limits my horizon to about 22 degrees altitude due south. My partner decided to go the other way and make his pier higher so he can look over the wall and he can get right down to the horizon (mountaintops, perhaps 5-10 degrees elevation), but he is more affected by the wind and we find that I can image in more windy conditions than he can so overall I am happy with the trade-off.

As I look across your images, it looks like the diffraction spikes aren't always at the same angle relative to the CCD. Are you able to rotate the camera remotely? Or is that something that requires hands-on adjustment?

Actually there is a couple things going on there. I do have a rotator (Optec Pyxis) that I can use for framing targets or finding a guide star. So far I have never actually needed to rotate to find a guide star. Even for framing, I seldom rotate because the QSI 640 camera has a square CCD chip. I did rotate for the NGC 2336 / IC 467 image to get both galaxies in the FOV along the chip diagonal.

More often though, the spikes are at different orientations because I rotate images during processing (aesthetics).

Here's a picture of the gear. Everything below the Pyxis rotates, and the big cable loop allows the rotation. The guide camera (SX Lodestar X2) is on the other side of the QSI camera so not visible.

[Chuck]

Awesome image and imaging setup Andy. You really have that setup nice and tidy. Thanks for sharing.

--- Chuck

[AstroGeek]

Andy,

Yet another fabulous image!! The detail all the way to the center of the galaxy is amazing. A bit surprised that you were able to capture the reddish nebulae in the outer arms without using an H-alpha filter. And it's nice to finally see a photo of your set-up, with identifying labels. I'd still be somewhat skittish being 3000 miles away from my gear if anything went wrong.

Steve