NGC4449 (New version!) (lowenthalm)

NGC4449 (New version!)

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

I decided to capture a new version of this from my backyard using improved skills since the old smaller bin2x2 image I posted a couple of years ago. The new version shows lots more detail. Seeing was pretty decent and I captured subs when it was close to overhead for the best detail and the results were good enough that I didn't bother applying any sharpening to image. However, I did do some noise reduction in the outer faint regions of the galaxy and the background sky.

Numerous blue O-B associations (young star clusters - think the Pleiades on steroids) mixed with red HII hydrogen clouds can be seen throughout this very active irregular galaxy. It looks like a pretty exciting place! The latest estimate for this galaxy's distance is about 13.9 million light years. given the size (including its faint outer region) of about 6.5 x 3.5 arc minutes, its true dimensions should be around 26000 x 14000 light years. This is pretty small compared to our own galaxy. Despite its small size, this galaxy is home to dozens and dozens of globular clusters. Quite a few of the faint neutral colored fuzzy "stars" seen in this galaxy are actually globular clusters, the brightest being the bright "star" near the center of the galaxy. Its visual magnitude 15.46, so might be visible visually in a large aperture scope of 16" or larger.

This galaxy is easily visually observed in a small telescope (4" should show it) as it is around 10th magnitude.

Each of the nine 8 minute subs combined for this image were themselves a live-stack (in SharpCap) of 320 x 1.5 second subs. Limiting magnitude in the image is somewhat fainter than 21.5 (V).

Original
Final
C

C

Description: After posting M94 and going back and looking at NGC4449, I thought I really didn't do a very good job of noise management during processing. Here is a new version with lower noise and a little darker sky background to improve the overall contrast.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4424107
PixInsight job	IM1DDA5TS1IXT0LZY0F3J069GFU97JZO
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h28m11s.444
RA (top/left)	12h27m38s.791
RA (top/right)	12h27m02s.569
RA (bottom/right)	12h28m43s.781
RA (bottom/left)	12h29m20s.597

Dec (center)	+44°05′45″.69
Dec (top/left)	+44°21′06″.48
Dec (top/right)	+43°54′56″.54
Dec (bottom/right)	+43°50′23″.38
Dec (bottom/left)	+44°16′31″.20

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