NGC7331 – The Deer Lick Group
 
Magnitude 10.3 spiral galaxy NGC7331 is dominant in this group of galaxies. It is estimated to be about 50 million light years away, and is about 64,000 light years across. Close to NGC7331 are four other galaxies, plus two more near the edges of the photo:
  • NGC7335, a magnitude 13.8 spiral galaxy, is directly above.
  • NGC7336, a magnitude 14.6 spiral galaxy, is to the right of NGC7335.
  • NGC7337, a magnitude 14.6 barred galaxy, is to the left of NGC7335.
  • NGC7340, a magnitude 13.9 elliptical galaxy, is above NGC7337.
  • NGC7326, a magnitude 16.2 spiral galaxy, near the bottom-right.
  • PGC2051985, a faint magnitude 16.8 galaxy is toward the right edge.

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NGC7331 - The Deer Lick Group
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Equipment
 Celestron 9¼" at f/5.6 on a Celestron CGE equatorial mount
SBIG ST-8XM camera
SBIG CFW-10 color filter wheel with Astrodon TruBalance LRGB filters
Optec TCF-S focuser
Optec Pyxis camera rotator
Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.11
Exposure
Luminance   5.7 hours (114 x 3 min.) unbinned @ -10°C
Red   3 hours (60 x 3 min.), binned 2x2 @ -10°C
Green   3 hours (59 x 3 min.), binned 2x2 @ -10°C
Blue   3 hours (59 x 3 min.), binned 2x2 @ -10°C
Processing Master dark frames (1x1 lum and 2x2 RGB): 35 x 3 min. sigma-reject combined
Dark and flat frame reduction in CCDSoft
Sigma-reject combined
Processing and LRGB-combined in Photoshop CS
Date and Location 5-9 September 2005
Montpelier, VA    N 37° 49' 12", W 77° 42' 06"