NGC5905 & NGC 5908: NGC5905 (upper right) and NGC5908 (lower left) are two small (in apparent size) dim (magnitude 12) spiral galaxies, visually located within the constellation Draco; they are estimated to be about 140 million light years from us, and only about 500,000 light years from each other. NGC5905 presents to us face on, making it easy to see the barred spiral nature of the galaxy; assuming that it is 140 million light year distant, it is approximately 160,000 light years in diameter, making it a large galaxy (our Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter). NGC5908 presents to us edge on, obscuring the spiral structure but showing the dust lanes; it is approximately 130,000 light years in diameter.

Technical Information:

LRGB: 360:100:90:80 (Luminance layer consists of eighteen 20-minute images, unbinned; R, G and B consist of 10-minute images, all binned).

Equipment: 16" RCOS at about f/9, and an SBIG STL-11000M with internal filter wheel (Astrodon filter set), on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: CCDSoft v5, controlled with CCDAutoPilot3, and working in concert with TheSky v6.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats), registered and combined in CCDStack. Luminance layer deconvolved in CCDStack. Color combine in Photoshop CS2. Curves and levels performed in Photoshop, as well as a gaussian blur of the RGB layer.

Location: Data acquired remotely from the Tejas Observatory, located on the grounds of New Mexico Skies, near Mayhill, NM (elevation 7300 feet).

Date: Images taken during a number of nights in June and July of 2007.

Pixel scale: .505 arcseconds per pixel.

CCD Chip temperature: -20C

Seeing: Poor for New Mexico

Transparency: Poor

Moon Phase: Varied from no moon to about half moon

Copyright 2007 Mark de Regt

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