Ringed Galaxy NGC 7020 - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

Ringed Galaxy NGC 7020

31-Aug-2018
Ringed Galaxy NGC 7020 thumbnail
Ringed Galaxy NGC 7020
The southern galaxy NGC 7020 presents an unusual morphology: it includes a very regular outer ring which is completely detached and which envelops an inner ring/lens zone with a hexagon surrounding an X shape.

The outer ring has a high contrast compared to those usually observed in barred galaxies, yet NGC 7020 is not obviously barred. (Description: Ronald, Buta, (November 1990). "The ringed X-galaxy NGC 7020")

Image:

  • 65x 360s luminance
  • 23x 360s red
  • 34x 360s green
  • 38x 360s blue

Total integration 16 hours.

Hardware:

  • Celestron 11" EdgeHD
  • Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount
  • QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
  • Astronomik luminance, deep sky RGB filters
  • Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
  • Starlight Xpress Active Optics
  • Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
  • Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

Location:

  • Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
  • Imaged over 5 nights. New Moon.

Software:

  • Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
  • Captured with TheSkyX Professional
  • Guiding with PHD2
  • FocusLock live focusing
  • PixInsight: Calibration, registration, integration, crop, dynamic background extraction, denoise, deconvolution, color calibratio, background neutralization, HDR multiscale transform, SCNR, histogram stretch, curves

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