NGC 891
Image Credit: Sheri Loftin
In October of 2013, Sheri Loftin pointed one of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center telescopes towards NGC 891. Sheri used the RGB and luminescence filters on the SBIG STL-6303 camera for about a five minute exposure on each filter, with 1x1 binning on the luminescence and 2x2 on the RGB. This spiral galaxy spans about 100 thousand light years and is in the constellation Andromeda which is about 30 million light years away. It is seen almost exactly edge on from our perspective.
Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), part of the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse
collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime
optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Sharing the
mountaintop site
with the National Solar Observatory, KPNO, founded in 1958, operates
three major nighttime telescopes and hosts the facilities of consortia
which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
(See the Tenant Observatories list.)
Kitt Peak is located 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, in the Schuk Toak
District on the Tohono O'odham Nation and has a Visitor Center open daily
to the public.
If you need to contact someone at NOAO but are uncertain of that person's email
address, simply send email to "first_inital_last_name_at_noao.edu", i.e.,
bsmith_at_noao.edu or jdoe_at_noao.edu. A general
purpose email account has been set up to answer any questions you have about
observing at Kitt Peak and don't know who to ask. Any and all questions you have can be e-mailed to this address: kpno_at_noao.edu and it will be forwarded to the appropriate person.
