M83

Click on image for larger version.

This face-on spiral galaxy is often called the Southern Pinwheel. It has two major arms (and a third fainter one) which present the countanance of this barred spiral. This galaxy is the birthplace of massive stars. In the past 80 years there are been 4 observations of these large stars blowing up (supernovae). This is 10 times the expected rate of such events- and to this day a topic of current research and uncertainty.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

Luminance = 90 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2
  • Poor seeing "attacked" in the middle of the acquisition of this data set. Due to its low altitude in the sky- this has a dramatic effect on the outcome of the image.
  • Three iterations of L-R deconvolution (sharpening) algorithm using CCDsharp were applied to the luminance image.

  • Digital Development (DDP) via Maxim/DL was also used in order to display the the very dim and very bright details of the image simultaneously.

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    Minimum credit line: Allan Cook/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 3/08/2005