NGC7331_StephansQuintet_Composite_ReSizedDown2HD

            Object Details: The attached composite shows 'The Deer Lick Galaxy Group' (allegedly named after a location in North Carolina), as well as Stephan's Quintet (discovered by Édouard Stephan in 1877) as they appeared in (top) an 80 mm, f/6 apo. & (bot) an 8-in. f/7 newt.

NGC7331 is the large spiral galaxy that dominates the Deer Lick Group, while several smaller & fainter galaxies are visible both above and below it. Although given the term 'group', these galaxies are not gravitationally interacting, with those above NGC 7331 actually lying far more distant; being on the order of 300 million light-years away as opposed to NGC 7331 which is a 'mere' (relatively speaking) 40 million light-years from Earth. 

Conversely, Stephan's Quintet is a visual grouping of 5 galaxies consisting of four which are gravitationally interacting, and as a result have been 'warped' into various shapes. Eventually it is assumed that the four interacting galaxies will merge into one single, giant, elliptical. Like those which lies above NGC7331, the interacting quartet of Stephan's Quintet lie approximately 300  million light-years from Earth while the fifth (NGC 7320 - the larger 'bluish' galaxy at lower right in the close-up image) is a foreground object at a distance of 'only' approximately 40 million light-years. 

Found in the constellation of Pegasus, NGC 7331 glows at magnitude 10.4, while the members of Stephan's Quintet are quite a bit fainter, ranging in magnitude from 13.9 to 16.7 One of my favorite views in our autumn skies, NGC 7331's inclination along our line-of-sight adds  a wonderful sense of depth to the scene.

Image Details: The 80mm image and close-up shot of Stephan's Quintet were taken in August 2019, while the individual image of NGC 7331 was shot in July of 2018. 

Imaged by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory they utilized, (top) an ED80T CF (i.e. an Orion 80mm, f/6 apochromatic triplet refratcor) and (bot) a vintage (1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected to twin (unmodded) Canon 700D (t5i) DSLRs. The apo. was piggybacked on the newt. and they were both  tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor which itself was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.

The attached composite image was constructed using stacks of short 1 and 3 min. sub-exposures, and was processed using a combination of PixInsight and PaintShopPro. As presented here they have been cropped, the entire composite has been re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Being my first attempt to image Stephan's Quintet and using (relatively speaking) fairly short exposures; although they contain more noise than I prefer, I was fairly pleased with the result. I'm looking forward to trying a deeper image in the future.

Taken on: October 26, 2019

Tags:

HomCav

Observatory

Lick

Galaxy

Group

NGC

7331

7335

7336

7337

7340Stephan's

Quintet

7317

7318a

7318b

7319

7320c

spiral

gravitationally

interacting

Canon

700D

t5i

DSLR

Orion

ED80T

carbon

fiber

80MM

f/6

triplet

apochromatic $Everybody's photos tagged with refractor$ refractor

0.8X

Televue

field

flattener

focal

reducer

8-inch

f/7

Criterion

newtonian

reflector

Losmandy

G-11

mount

Gemini

control

system

PHD2

ZWO

ASI290MC

auto-guider

Celestron

short-tube

astronomy

astrophotography « less

Sets appears in: • Deep Sky (Galaxies, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Supernovae) • Galaxies

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