Galaxy group Mahtessian 266

[wimvb]

Galaxy group Mahtessian 266 in the constellation Pegasus. This interacting group of three galaxies consists of ngc 7769, ngc 7770, and ngc 7771. The gravitational pull between these galaxies have created shell structures and tidal tails. Also just barely visible in this image is IFN.

Acquisition details:

telescope/camera: Skywatcher MN190 with ZWO ASI294MM and Optolong LRGB filters

Exposures:

• L: 48 x 2 minutes (I had collected 88 subs, but had to throw away 40 because of high clouds. I plan to collect more Luminance when the weather starts playing nice again)
• R: 54 x 4 minutes
• G: 63 x 4 minutes
• B: 52 x 4 minutes

Total integration time so far: almost 13 hours

Because of the low number of luminance subs, I combined all subs and created a synthetic luminance.

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by wimvb

[gorann]

Excellent Wim! A new group to me and with two stunning beauties. I would try to suppress the stars and their halos a bit, maybe try experimenting with a starless version.

[wimvb]

5 hours ago, gorann said:

Excellent Wim! A new group to me and with two stunning beauties. I would try to suppress the stars and their halos a bit, maybe try experimenting with a starless version.

Thanks Göran. The stars are already reduced in this image. We’ve had a lot of moisture in the air lately and most of the subs were quite soft with fat stars. I’m hoping for a longer period with colder air so I can gather more luminance. That should also increase the amount of details in the galaxies.

[GalaxyGael]

Ye olde Mak-Newt! Lovely image, nice galaxy group for the 'bookmarks'

[wimvb]

A few extra clear nights allowed me to capture luminance for this target, some 40+ subs. Slowly the ifn is emerging.

As chance would have it, after midnight tonight the skies cleared again. So with the moon out of the way and guiding between 0.65" and 0.7", I'm collecting luminance data. Guiding could be better, earlier this evening during a gap in the clouds, I measured 0.5", but the target is lower in the sky now.