NGC1530

Orientated nearly face on to Earth and situated close to the northern celestial pole, NGC 1530 has a low surface brightness and is classified as a barred spiral galaxy. It is estimated to be between 80 and 113million light years away and receding at over 2400km/s.  

Whilst not often imaged by amateurs, it is one of the most examined galaxies by the professionals. Many of these studies focus on mechanisms for star formation, which is rare amongst galaxies with a prominent bar. The strong HII emissions, seen in the image, are evidence of star formation.  

The galaxy is relatively isolated, so I decided to crop the image to better reveals the galaxy’s details. To enhance the spiral structure of the core, I used Russell Croman’s (free) ColorCorrectedHDMRT PI script that corrects for Hue changes whilst compressing dynamic range.

The LRGB image was acquired with my Esprit 150 and represents approximately 11 hours integration time.  

Alan