NGC 7284 and 7285 are two small galaxies (each about 2.5 by 1.5 min arc), middling faint (each mag 12, 13 mag/sq arcmin), so difficult targets, and not often imaged, but interesting because they are tearing each other to shreds.
Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave. Lum 9.5 hrs, RGB 2 hrs each in half hour subs. Field 0.36 min arc, north up. No moon, but very windy and variable seeing.
The thumbnail is a tight crop. The full image, which contains many other interesting furry creatures, is
here.
There are only two other comparable images that we could find: a recent and
beautiful work by Mike Sidonio, which is extremely sharp, and a quickie by the
Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey using a 2.5 metre scope in Chile, which is ridiculously sharp but not very deep.
Our image is much deeper than the CGS image
, but of course nowhere near as sharp. We're pleased to see that our colours are comparable, and that we don't seem to have produced too many dots that aren't also in the CGS image.
In our image, the broad tidal tail toward 7 o'clock proves to be leaf-shaped, with three identifiable bluish vein-like streamers of star formation, not easily photographed because of their faintness.
Very best,
Mike and Trish