NGC 5981, NGC 5982, & NGC 5985: The Draco Triplet
Date: June 14, 2020
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0031
The Draco Triplet, consisting of NGC 5981, NGC 5982, and NGC 5985. (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
The Draco Group of Galaxies are a string of three primary galaxies that can be seen in a common field of view in the constellation Draco. The largest and roundest one seen at the bottom of the frame is NGC 5985. This has a barred spiral structure, and the arms are clearly visible in this shot. NGC 5981 can be seen at the top of the frame. This is also a barred spiral galaxy, but it is seen almost edge-on. The galaxy in the center is NGC 5982. It is an elliptical galaxy - which is typically seen as nebulous without any obvious structure. These galaxies are approximately 100 Million light-years from earth.
The Annotated Image
Annotated image of the Draco Triplet - created with Pixinsight ImageSolve and AnnotateImage Scripts.
About the Project
These are kind of small for my scope, but the grouping was kind of cool! I love the thought that I am looking at 3 complete galaxies whose photons have traveled 100 million years to hit my camera sensor finally! It boggles the mind...
This image resulted from 47 x 180 captures.
The Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Map for Draco - Messier 16 indicated with the yellow arrow.
Capture Details
Light Frames
47 x 180 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C, unity gain,
Total of 2.35 hours
Cal Frames
Not recorded.
Capture Hardware
Scope: William Optics 132mm f/7.0 FLT APO
Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61EDPHII
Camera: ZWO ASI1600mm-pro with ZWO Filter wheel with ZWO LRGB filter set,
and Astronomiks 6nm Narrowband filter set
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Camera Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Polemaster camera
Click below to visit post about the Telescope version used for this image
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, editor regret, and much swearing….. Given the problems on this image, more than the usual whining….
During August and September I was out shooting every clear night. I had learned a lot of things but I was also noticing several issues that were causing me problems as I did more imaging. I decided to do something to address those issues….