NGC 1055 – SPIRAL GALAXY

Cetus

(ra: 2,41.8 / dec 00:26)

DATA

TYPE Spiral Galaxy

MAGNITUDE: 10.6
SIZE: 7.6 x 2.7 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 60 million light years

OBJECT DESCRIPTION

NGC 1055 is located at 30 minutes of M77 and join the M77 Group in the constellation of Cetus. It is a nice edge on Spiral Galaxy with a dust lane along its equator. The SCT C8 was able to capture some details of the Galaxy structure. However objects of this size needs at least 1500 mm of focal length, however due sky and night conditions, it was decided to work at f6.3 On the other side, the 1260 mm alowed to bring this three bright and colorfull stars of magnitude 6.7; 7.59 and 10.13. It was the first time with the CLS Astronomik filter for the L channel. The filter showed a more than acceptable performance, with no distortion in star colors.

NGC 1055 was missed by French astronomer Pierre Méchain (M77 discoverer) and also by Charles Messier, probably because the lower magnitude. In December 1783 William Herschel cataloged this object as a bright nebula

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron SCT 8. Vixen GPDX with Sky Sensor 2000

GUIDING: Synta 70/400 refractor, SXV guidecam Astro Art Control interface 3.72 Plug in

IMAGE ACQUISITION: Astro Art 3.0 / Control interface 3.72 Plug in

SKY CONDITIONS: Windy and poor seeing. Visual limit magnitude 4

CAMERA: Starlight Xpress SXV7at @ f6.3

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II, and Astronomik CLS filter

EXPOSURES: 72 minutes.  LHaGB (20,16,16,20) 4 minutes subs

PROCESSED: Darks, bias and flats in Images Plus, Photoshop CS