IC 2574, Coddington's Nebula

[tomato]

Here is another seldom imaged galaxy, IC 2574, discovered in 1898 by Edwin Foster Coddington using the Crocker Photographic Telescope at the Lick Observatory. It is part of M81 galaxy group and is some 12.5 million light years distant from the Milky Way.

This is 6 hrs integration with the Esprit 150/QHY268 LRGB rig captured over 3 sessions. I was hoping for 3 times that amount of integration but every session in January which promised so much has been plagued with either intermittent or persistent cloud so I have thrown in the towel at this point. I'm not sure what has caused the spikes on the star to the left of the galaxy, usually this is because I let the edge of the shutter aperture intrude on the FOV of the scope but then this usually affects all of the bright stars, not just one.

Processed as usual in PI/Xterminator suite/Affinity Photo, thanks for looking.

 

[Roy Foreman]

I sometimes get those single spikes. In my case it is usually because something has obstructed the field of view, like the observatory opening not properly aligned with the scope !

[tomato]

1 hour ago, Roy Foreman said:

I sometimes get those single spikes. In my case it is usually because something has obstructed the field of view, like the observatory opening not properly aligned with the scope !

Ah, come to think of it, I had a very large oak tree directly below the object at the start of the session, I thought it was out of the FOV, but maybe not.

[wimvb]

Nice catch! A tip, if you decide you want to revisit this galaxy; add Ha data. This galaxy has a number of small Hydrogen clouds that shine like a ruby crown near its top.

https://www.astrobin.com/2z9az5/

[tomato]

Thanks Wim. I have to confess, I saw your image and realised it is well worth collecting some Ha. I have just one hour of data through an NBZ dual band filter and OSC camera but to date I haven’t managed to blend this in to produce a better result, but I haven’t given up!

[geeklee]

12 hours ago, tomato said:

IC 2574

That looks great @tomato  You can just see where the Ha is coming through (where some of the dedicated data you mention above would enhance).  Very nice transitions between the brighter and fainter areas.

[tomato]

Thanks to @wimvb's encouragement I have continued my attempts to add in the meagre 1 hr of dual band data I collected. This is my best attempt so far, adding the red channel from the NBZ RGB into the red channel of the RGB broadband data. I've cropped it so the Ha regions can be seen a bit better, but of course that is revealing my processing artefacts also.

[tomato]

It looked very green on my iPad although less so on my processing monitor. 
Here is a tweaked version with the iPad photo editor:

[wimvb]

1 hour ago, tomato said:

Thanks to @wimvb's encouragement I have continued my attempts to add in the meagre 1 hr of dual band data I collected. This is my best attempt so far, adding the red channel from the NBZ RGB into the red channel of the RGB broadband data. I've cropped it so the Ha regions can be seen a bit better, but of course that is revealing my processing artefacts also.

That's it!

[gorann]

Beautiful image. You caught some really nice detail there Steve! You may also consider aiming your RASA at it as there is quite a lot of IFN around:

https://www.astrobin.com/0jy6z6/