NGC 4945 – GALAXY 

Centaurus

 (ra: 13:05,4/ dec -49:28)

cELEST

Merlo, San Luis Province, Argentina

February 11th 2009

DATA

TYPE: Dusty Hedge on Spiral Galaxy

VISUAL MAGNITUDE: 9

SIZE: 20 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 13 Millions light years

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

NGC 4945 is part of the Centaurus Group along with NGC 5128. Six times further away compared to Andromeda it’s a nearby Galaxy characterized by its high infrared luminosity, which also implies high levels of radiation emitted by its young and massive stars. It nucleus can not be directly observed by the astronomers, due the dark dust which is in the hedge perspective. The high speed rotation in its core, suppose the existence of a super massive black hole which size is about 1.6 million suns.

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron SCT C8 @ 6.3 Meade LXD 75

SKY CONDITIONS: 3/4 Moon Transparency and seeing regular

CAMERA: Starlight Xpress SXV H9

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II

EXPOSURES: LRGB (60,20,20,20)

ACQUISITION: AstroArt v 3. CCD control Interface v. 3.72

GUIDING: William Optics ZS 66 Apo refractor - SXV Guide Camera

PROCESSED: Maxim DL (no darks, flats nor bias used), CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS