NGC 3628

NGC 3628: This edge on spiral galaxy with the prominent dust band is the third member of the "Leo Trio" of galaxies. (The other two are M65 and M66.) Extending out well beyond the field of view in tis image is a gravitationally stretched "tail" of stars suggesting some ancient interaction with another galaxy.

NGC: 3628
Right Ascension: 11 hrs 20 min 17 sec
Declination: 13° 35' 23"
Apparent Magnitude: 9.5

Date: May 2012
Equipment:
Telescope: Meade 16" Schmidt Cassegrain with f6.3 reducer
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE
Guiding: Meade 5" refractor/DSI Pro/PHD/AO-8
Exposure:
Luminosity = 16x10 minutes binned 1x1
R:G:B = 15x5 minutes binned 2x2
The camera was at -30°C or -35°C depending on the night

Processing Notes: Data acquisition with CCDSoft. Reduced and aligned in CCDStack and combined with Sigma Combine. Adjusted curves and levels of L and RGB independently. Increased contrast on the non-stellar portions via a 50% highpass filter overlay layer. Slight blur on the dim areas and sharpening on non-star bright areas. RGB combined in CCDStack at 1:1:1.6 ratio. Adjusted curves and levels, and reduced noise of RGB via Carboni action. L was combined with RGB and final adjustment and tweak in Photoshop.
Scale: 0.53"/pixel on highest resolution

Links to images of this object on other sites:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050408.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070727.html
http://www.mistisoftware.com/astronomy/Galaxies_ngc3628.htm

Additional Comments: This image was taken over the course of several weeks, as rain and a full moon interfered with consecutive imaging sessions. This is the first image in which at least a few of the subframes were taken remotely.
A previous image of NGC3628 was taken in 2008, and can be found here: http://www.fortlewis.edu/observatory/image_detail.asp?ID=98

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