NGC 4535

Click on image for larger version.


 NGC 4535 is a fantastic face-on spiral with clearly defined arms. Note how the young bright blue stars define the arms- along with pink knots of emission nebulae in the galaxy. The galaxy was studied as part of the Hubble Space Telescope Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project. Astronomers studied luminous Cepheid variables in this galaxy and estimate its distance to be 52 +/- 3 million light years away. Also note the handful of background galaxies in the image. Pretty incredible!

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 = 105 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 30 minutes binned 2x2
  • Two 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: Doug Matthews and EJ Jones/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 04/14/2004