NGC55: NGC55 is an irregular galaxy visually within the constellation Sculptor. NGC55 probably started out life as a barred spiral galaxy (it is presenting to us nearly edge-on), but its presumed gravitational interactions with its neighbor NGC300 are deforming it. Those gravitational forces also are causing the unusually active star-forming taking place in this galaxy, evidenced by the pinkish regions (particularly the bright core). The bright blue dots are clusters of bright young stars. NGC55 is relatively close to us, about 6 million light years away, and is a member of the Sculptor Galaxy Group. It measures about 50,000 light years across (about half what our Milky Way measures).

Technical Information:

LRGB: 390:150:150:150; All channels are the integration of 15-minute exposures through Astrodon filters. All images unbinned.

Equipment: 14.5" RCOS at about f/9, and an SBIG STL-11000M with internal filter wheel (Astrodon filter set), guided by a MOAG/AO-L combination, all riding on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: Maxim DL, controlled with ACP, working in concert with TheSky v6.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats), aligned, combined and deconvolved (data used in the luminance layer only) in Pixinsight. Color combine in Pixinsight. Finish work (curves and levels, adjustment of contrast, High Pass Filter/Layer Mask, and some sharpening of the luminance layer) was done in Photoshop CS5.

Location: Data acquired remotely from Fair Dinkum Skies, Moorook, South Australia.

Date: Images taken on many nights in September and October of 2014. Image posted November 19, 2014.

CCD Chip temperature: -5C/-15C

Copyright 2014 Mark de Regt

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