NGC891
Image details
The image was taken at 27 November 2006 without a focal reducer at f10. The clear layer consists of a sum of 5 images of 5 minutes exposure each at 1600x1200 pixels. The RGB layers consist of adding 6 exposures of 2 minutes each at 2x2 binning resulting in pictures of 800x600 pixels. For all images darkframes and flatfields are applied. The images are processed further with Photoshop using FITS Liberator.
About NGC891
NGC 891 is a fine edge-on spiral galaxy at a distance of 30 million light years and a visual brightness of 10 mag. Spirals have most of their bright stars, gas, and obscuring dust in a thin disk. This disk can be so thin the spiral galaxy appears edge-on like a compact disk seen sideways. The dark band across the middle is a lane of dust which absorbs light. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. NGC 891 is a member of a small group of galaxies, sometimes called the NGC 1023 group.