NGC2403 spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis



NGC 2403, also referred to as Caldwell 7, is an intermediate spiral galaxy located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is a distant member of the M81 Group and lies roughly 8 million light-years away.

The materials for this photo were taken from a balcony (Bortle 7 sky/red light pollution area) in August-September 2024.


Gear used:

  • Stellarvue SV102ED refractor with William Optics 0.8x focal reducer/flattener (570mm effective focal length, f/5.6)
  • ZWO ASI178MM monochrome camera with Baader Planetarium UV/IR cut filter
  • Nikon D5100 DSLR camera
  • Celestron CG5 equatorial mount with Asterion upgrade kit (EQStar system)
  • QHY mini guide scope and QHY5L-II guide camera

Exposure:

  • Luminance channel acquired with ASI178MM: 1,397 × 30 s subexposures stacked (11.6 hours total)
  • Color data acquired with Nikon D5100: 857 × 45 s frames stacked (10.7 hours total)

Due to the limited view from my balcony, I was only able to image this galaxy for about an hour each night, so the 22 hours of total exposure correspond to 22 nights of imaging. 😅



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