The Silver Coin galaxy, NGC253, was discovered by the astronomer and mathematician Caroline Herschel in 1783. It can be located in the southern constellation of Sculptor some 11.4 million light-years from Earth. It has a great star rate formation. It’s the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our Local Group of galaxies.
The dusty extended halo that surrounds this galaxy is composed of thousands of stars and it’s really faint. I was able to capture this structure thanks to the dark sky of the Namibian desert. I spent one week there last September to capture some images of the southern night sky. Darkness reached an amazing 22.15 mag/arcsc2.
Image Details
L: 40×300″
RGB: (20;15;15)x300″
Data acquisition: September 2021
All images at -30ºC bin1
Calibrated with 24 flats, 24 darks, 24 bias
Total exposure: 7h30’
Average darkness: 22.15 mag/arcsec2
Image resolution: 1.15”/pixel
FOV: 1.43ºx1.15º
Equipment
ASA N12 f/3.6 Astrograph
ASA DDM85 mount
FLI 16200 CCD camera
Astrodon LRGB filters
Software
Maxim DL, The Sky, ASA Focus, APP, PIX, LR, PS, TPZ.
Aleix Roig – NAMIBIA (Tivoli Astrofarm), November 2021.
Full HD view on Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/tbx9je/