NGC 7331

NGC 7331: NGC 7331 is the dominant member in what is also known as the Deer Lick Group. This relatively close grouping is towards the constellation Pegasus. It is one of the brighter galaxies "missed" in Messier's catalog. At one time, it was thought the Milky Way may look like this galaxy, but more recent measurements suggest more of a bar shape for our galaxy.

NGC: 7331
Other Catalogs: Caldwell 30
Right Ascension: 22h 37m
Declination: 34° 25'
Apparent Magnitude: 10.4

Date: September 2008
Equipment:
Telescope: Meade 16" Schmidt Cassegrain with f6.3 reducer
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE
Guiding: Meade 5" refractor/DSI Pro/PHD

Exposure: L:R:G:B = 45:15:15:15 in 3 minute subframes.
Processing Notes: Data acquisition, reduction, and alignment with CCDSoft. Subs combined in Sigma Beta. RVB combined in AstroArt with a ratio of 1:1:1.5. L stretched a tweaked in Photoshop and combined with RGB in AstroArt. Resulting image saved as a TIFF for import into Photoshop. Adjusted image using Carboni actions.
Scale: ~1"/pixel

Links to images of this object on other sites:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091024.html
http://panther-observatory.com/gallery/deepsky/doc/NGC7331_cass.htm
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081022.html

Additional Comments: This was one of the first "post-wedge" photographs, so although the flatness of the raw data could be better, it was much better than any of the images taken in Alt-Az mode using the field de-rotator. The belt glitch was still very active, so exposures were limited to 3 minutes.

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