NGC 3718 (right side of image)
and NGC 3729 are 52 million light-years from our galaxy and are separated by 147,000
light-years. The distorted spiral arms of NGC 3718 are evidence of gravitational
interaction between the two galaxies. The group of galaxies at the bottom of the image is
Hickson Group 56, also known as Arp 322, located at a distance of 300 million light-years.
Equipment: Meade
14" LX200R/STL-11000M/Astrodon LRGB filters/Paramount ME
F-ratio: f/9.5
Exposures: LRGB: L 18 x 10 minutes, binned 2x2: R 18 x 10 minutes: G 18 x
10 minutes: B 18 x 10 minutes: RGB binned 3x3
Date: March 24, April 14 and 20, 2012
Location: Landers, California, USA
Technical Notes: Individual exposures were dithered using CCDAutoPilot2
and then sigma combined. The RGB image was created in Registar 1.0. A high-pass
filter of 4 pixels was applied to portions of the luminance image. Reduce Noise was
applied to the dim portions of the RGB and luminance images. A duplicate of the RGB image
was combined with the original using Soft Light to increase color saturation.
