NGC 4559

Click on image for larger version.

This spiral galaxy is located in the direction of Coma Berenices. A type II supernova went off in this galaxy some time ago (SN 1941a). Several papers estimate its appearent magnitude was 13 and absolute magnitude to be around 15.7. From this astronomers would estimate this galaxy to be between 20-30 million light years away. Like many nearby spiral galaxies, NGC 4559 displays bright star-forming regions and dust lanes in its expansive arms. There are also a number of background galaxies and galaxy groups in this image. (note: by using redshift measurements- the galaxy is 35 million light years distant which is not in terrible disagreement with the SN data)

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

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

Luminance = 100 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 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: Jeff Hapeman/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 3/15/2005