Tuesday, November 21, 2017

A Ghostly Companion



Mirach's Ghost is an 11th magnitude galaxy located 7 arc-minutes from the bright (2nd Magnitude) star Mirach. This lenticular galaxy was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It's proximity in the sky to Mirach makes imaging challenging. In this image you can see it as a fuzzy blob at around the 2 o'clock position. The faint "donut" further to the right is due to internal reflections in the optical train. This image was taken with an ASI 120MM camera on a 6 inch RC scope with .5x focal reduction. It is a stack of 5 x 17-second integrations made in very windy conditions.
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