ngc 3310

[wimvb]

Ngc 3310 is a Grand Design starburst galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is situated approximately 45 - 60 Mly from Earth. Probably due to a collision with a smaller galaxy, there is a lot of star formation going on in this galaxy, so this image would benefit from adding Ha.

Apparent magnitude: 11.2

Data collected during 2 nights in February

During the first night, seeing was bad, so I only kept the RGB data. Last night seeing was a lot better, allowing me to collect Luminance data.

Equipment:

• Skywatcher BK MN190 DS on AZ EQ6 mount
• ZWO ASI174MM-Cool camera
• Guiding: ST80 + ASI120MM
• Control software: INDI + Ekos

Acquisition details:

• Red: 25 x 180 s
• Green: 18 x 180 s
• Blue: 17 x 180 s
• Lum: 73 x 120 s

Total integration time: 5.4 hours

 

A complete rework is shown below. More colour, better star control, and more of the faint tidal tail.

[x6gas]

Wow - that's pretty.  Interesting target that I was unaware of so thanks for sharing.

[gorann]

That is really nice Wim! A lot of fine details of an unusual and odd looking galaxy.

[wimvb]

On 01/03/2019 at 20:02, x6gas said:

Wow - that's pretty.  Interesting target that I was unaware of so thanks for sharing.

 

8 hours ago, gorann said:

That is really nice Wim! A lot of fine details of an unusual and odd looking galaxy.

Thanks x6gas and Göran. I was fortunate enough to get an extra night with clear skies after one night where I only could collect colour data.

I've just finished a rework of this luminance data to reveal more of the faint tidal structure. Will post in a minute

[wimvb]

Here's a complete rework of this image. No additional data, just more careful processing.

In the mean time I've also learned more about this peculiar galaxy.

It's in the Arp catalog of peculiar galaxies as Arp 217.

It has a weak tidal structure, possibly due to interaction with another galaxy. A close encounter (or merger) with another galaxy also set off violent star formation 100 million years ago.

The "sun" at the top of the image is a magnitude 5.5 star that caused me a lot of headache trying to keep it under control. It was bloated in the single subs already, to the point where it caused severe microlens diffraction.

[gorann]

Very nice re-processing! Peculiar, that was the word I was looking for and now you show it even better.

[swag72]

Oooo, nice! I'm glad to see this as I've been working on it myself albeit at a longer focal length

[wimvb]

41 minutes ago, swag72 said:

Oooo, nice! I'm glad to see this as I've been working on it myself albeit at a longer focal length

Thanks Sara. This galaxy will benefit from the longer focal length. And a smaller pixel scale (which is in my case 1.2"/pixel). I almost gave up on this target after seeing the first results. But I'm glad I decided to collect more luminance data. If the weathergods permit, I'll probably collect even more. It could do with double of everything, plus Ha.

Looking forward to your version.