Mir­ach’s Ghost (NGC 404) in Andromeda

NGC 404 is truly a hid­den treas­ure. This bright (mag 9.8) len­ticular galaxy lies a little more than 6′ north­w­est of the 2nd-mag­nitude gold star Beta Andromedae (Mir­ach). Beta’s light inter­feres with — but does not drown out — this round little gem. NGC 404 is the nearest len­ticular galaxy to our Milky Way at a dis­tance of 8 mil­lion light-years.

The vicin­ity of NCG 404 to Mir­ach and the huge dif­fer­ence in bright­ness (8 mag­nitudes) made the pro­cessing of the image demand­ing. In addi­tion, many reflec­tions on sur­faces in the optic­al train appeared when data have been stretched. North is at 2 o’clock.

[descrip­tion from O’Meara]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Apo­gee U16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGB 620:220:220:220 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Mir­ach’s Ghost (NGC 404) in Andromeda

NGC 404 Galaxy Sky Chart Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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