NGC5866: This is a magnitude 10 lenticular (type S0-3) galaxy (essentially, a spiral galaxy without arms) in Draco, presenting to us edge-on. It is thought by many to be M102, but that is uncertain. The prominent dust lane almost bisects the disc, with a very slight angle from the long axis of the galaxy. It is estimated to be approximately 40 million light years from earth, and approximately 60,000 light years in diameter. NGC5866 is part of a galaxy group which includes NGC5907.

Technical Information:

LRGB: 120:35:35:63 (Luminance images all ten minute images, unbinned; R & G were five minute images, binned 2x2; B were nine minute images, binned 2x2).

Equipment: 10" LX200 at f/12 and SBIG ST-8XE camera/CFW-8 color filter wheel, guided with an SBIG A0-7, guiding at 17 Hz in Lum, 7 Hz in the color images.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: CCDSoft V5.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats) and registered in AIP4WIN. All layers average combined in Ray Gralak's Sigma Reject package. One iteration of fast, followed by ten iterations of slow (high frequency components only) Richardson-Lucy deconvolution applied to luminance layer in AIP4WIN. Color combine, adjustment of curves and levels, unsharp mask and gaussian blurs performed in Photoshop 6.

Location: My yard in Redmond, Washington, USA, elevation 500'.

Date: All images taken during the night of June 27, 2003.

CCD Temperature: -20C

Moon Phase: Day 25 (small, waning crescent moon).

Seeing: 1.9-2.3 Arcsecond FWHM on single calibrated raw images; deconvolved to 1.8 arcsecond FWHM.

Copyright Mark de Regt, 2003