NGC 3628

[alan4908]

Located in the Leo constellation, NGC 3628 is relatively bright, edge on spiral galaxy about 35 million light years away. Notable features are a broad equatorial dust band, which obscures the central region, and a very faint, 300,000 light years long, tidal tale of stars. It is also known as the Hamburger galaxy.

The neighbourhood also contains two other large galaxies, M65 and M66, which together with NGC 3628 form the Leo triplet.  Gravitational interactions with these galaxies are believed to be responsible for the warped disk and tidal tale. Spectroscopic analysis indicates that the stars in NGC 3628’s disk orbit in the opposite direction to the gas, which was probably caused by a close encounter with M66 800 million years ago, which is also thought to have also created the vast tidal tail.

The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 9.5 hours integration time. Apart from the galaxy features described above, if you look closely at the image you can see that I’ve also managed to capture some pinkish/red HII star forming regions in the central region of the galaxy.

Alan

NGC 3628

NGC 3628 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:17, R:14, G:14, B:12, x 600s; DARKS: 30, FLATS:40, BIAS:100 all at -20C.

[Mr Thingy]

Stunning image. The detail in the dust clouds really add a sense of scale. 

Is that a tail of the galaxy to the left?

[tooth_dr]

Really fantastic. You really only appreciate the detail you have managed to capture when you attempt it yourself 

[alan4908]

11 hours ago, Mr Thingy said:

Stunning image. The detail in the dust clouds really add a sense of scale. 

Is that a tail of the galaxy to the left?

Thanks for the comment 

Yes - that faint band of light to the left of the galaxy is the very long tidal tale . It doesn't often appear on images, probably because it is is very faint. As explained above, it was probably created c800 million years ago when M66 passed by and ripped stars and gas out of NGC 3628.

9 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Really fantastic. You really only appreciate the detail you have managed to capture when you attempt it yourself 

Thanks - yes, I agree - I've often looked at images at this galaxy but never really paid as much attention to the amount of detail before.

Alan

[tomato]

Fantastic detail and colour, really sharp. I never realised there was a gap in the tail between it and the galaxy until looking at this close in image.

[geeklee]

On 29/04/2021 at 11:58, alan4908 said:

capture some pinkish/red HII star forming regions in the central region of the galaxy.

What a cracking image Alan.  Those HII regions - so subtle but so clear.  Lovely colour throughout as well.

As Adam mentioned, having seen a few hours on my own screen (and being largely unimpressed) I know what the aim is for a future version.

[peter shah]

love that...nice and deep

[simmo39]

V nice!

[alan4908]

22 hours ago, tomato said:

Fantastic detail and colour, really sharp. I never realised there was a gap in the tail between it and the galaxy until looking at this close in image.

Thanks for the comment. On the tidal tail - I was expecting this to go all the way to the galaxy but it hit my noise floor quite  a way out. I presume it still exists here but it must be much dimmer in this region.

 

17 hours ago, geeklee said:

What a cracking image Alan.  Those HII regions - so subtle but so clear.  Lovely colour throughout as well.

As Adam mentioned, having seen a few hours on my own screen (and being largely unimpressed) I know what the aim is for a future version.

Thanks.  Yes, I too really like how those HII regions have come out on the final image. Good luck with your future capture ! 

 

17 hours ago, peter shah said:

love that...nice and deep

Thanks Peter. 

14 hours ago, simmo39 said:

V nice!

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it ! 

Alan

[tony210]

Great image - you have captured some nice detail here which is the thing that makes galaxy images work I think.

[alan4908]

22 hours ago, tony210 said:

Great image - you have captured some nice detail here which is the thing that makes galaxy images work I think.

Thanks - I agree with your point on the detail, that's why I went for an imaging set up with the highest resolution I thought was practical for Deep Sky imaging given my local conditions - 0.7 arc seconds per pixel. 

Alan