Still a work in progress, but this image is approaching what I had in mind. I have wanted to image this target for quite a few years. I have had several attempts at it but until now I was not able to get an LRGB data set.
This galaxy is really interesting. It is a Seyfert galaxy with a supermassive black hole of 140 million solar masses at its core. The black hole is pulling in so much material that is it causing star forming in the ring just around the core. That ring is approximately 5000 light years in diameter. The galaxy also has optical jets with show up in long exposure. I have captured two of the jets and there is vague hints of the third one but I cannot find see the 4th one at all. The optical jets were first thought to be relativistic jets but radio studies have proven this not to be the case and it is now established that these jets are composed of stars. Most likely being formed by the consumption of a dwarf galaxy.
The colour data is a bit thin for my liking. The blue data is high cloud affected and that has led to some blue blotchiness in the back ground. I am planning to pick up more data in the colour in the next week or so and during the following new moon. Not to mention trying for more luminance data to try for the other optical jets.
So I hope you like what you see so far. Feel free to comment as you please.
Click here for larger resolution image.