Astrodvorek Kamenne Zehrovice

NGC 521 (+ NGC533)

M 74To the right you see the whole field around these two small galaxies (in fact huge and distant, above the bright star HD8648 of 7.4m) in the Cetus constellation (and many smaller in the background). For decent picture rather small details in arms of the spiral galaxy NGC 521 should be adequately captured and some larger scope than that mine would be desirable. It has been, however, photographed quite rarely and I still believed that it's worth a try.  

I made use of a single clear night before the October new Moon (and unfortunately the forecast for next days is not positive). I had also some problems and the total exposure was relatively short.  Next day, after data processing, it emerged that the resulting picture was nevertheless not so bad. And while it was supposed to be something like a preliminary version, I was in fact already satisfied. It is surely not perfect, but probably quite decent within the bounds of possibility. Take a look at the more detailed (in full resolution) crop at the bottom.

As usually I also marked here (right from the bright star) a quasar with redshift z=3.63.

 

And what about our galaxies says wikipedia:

NGC 521, also occasionally referred to as PGC 5190 or UGC 962, is a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 224 million light-years in the constellation Cetus. It was discovered on 8 October 1785 by astronomer William Herschel.
NGC 533  is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It was also discovered (the same night) by William Herschel. It was described as "pretty bright, pretty large, round, gradually brighter middle" by John Louis Emil Dreyer, the compiler of the New General Catalogue.

Optics:       NoName Newton 192/800
                   +GPU c.c.

C
amera:    Atik One6
Filters:        LRGB Baader

Mount:      SW AZEQ-6
Guider:       Lacerta MGEN

Exposure:  22x5 min. (L)
                       7
x5 min. (R, G, B each), bin 2x2
Software:  PixInsight, Photoshop
18.10.  202
5

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NGC 521