Scottish astronomer James Dunlop first described this object as a "faint nebula". NGC 1808 is 35,000 light-years across and about 40 million light-years away. It is classified as a
barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Columba located in the Southern Hemisphere. Bars are found in about two-thirds of spiral galaxies. NGC 1808 has an apparent size of 7′.41 × 3′.39 arcmin and an apparent magnitude of approximately 10.
When I combined the initial red, green, and blue filters to create the RGB colour component of this image, I was taken by how muted the colours were. Adding Ha into the mix helped to richen the colours a little more. The luminance data was a treat. For a relatively small target and modest-sized instrument of 10 inches, I was more than pleased to see the level of detail present. I love the prominent dust lanes.
The following
link shows a similar look to my initial colour combination. Once the Ha was added, it lifted the colour and hues within the galaxy. I have included the core in Ha below. I think it's very cool.
Instruments:
- Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
- Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
- Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
- Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
- Pixel size: 9.00 um
- Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposure Details:- Red 21 X 450 Bin2
- Green 8 X 450 Bin2
- Blue 24 X 450 Bin2
- Lum 60 X 900 Bin1
- Ha 6 X 900
Total Exposure: Hours 23.125 Hours
Thanks for looking…
Image link