NGC 3718 in Ursa Major

Image Description and Details : NGC 3718 is an 'S' shaped and heavily warped spiral or lenticular galaxy located at a distance of fifty-two million light years in the constellation Ursa Major. The distortion to its shape likely comes from gravitational interactions with another galaxy, possibly with NGC 3729, the spiral galaxy located to the right in this image. Just above NGC 3718 is a cluster of interacting galaxies cataloged as Hickson 56.

The picture was taken on clear nights between 4/20/2022 and 4/28/2022 using a remotely controlled telescope in Rowe, NM. A total of 13 hours of luminance were combined with 3.5 hours each of red, green, and blue data to create the color image. The telescope used was a 305mm Riccardi-Honders astrograph with a focal ratio of f/3.8. The mount was an AP1100GTO AE running unguided using a high precision pointing and tracking model. The camera was a QHY600PH monochrome cooled to -10*C. Filters were Chroma 50mm x 50mm LRGB.

The software used for image capture was NINA. The mount was modeled and controlled by APCC. All calibration and post processing was performed in PixInsight.

Copyright: 2022 Jared Willson