Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
Thanks for the information Robert.
Next season I'll try imaging NGC 253 in NIR for the barred structure.
Steven
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Good idea! It will be interesting to see if the bar can be be seen at NIR wavelengths that are accessible to amateurs. In the optical regime, there is, at best, a
suggestion of a bar; so perhaps you will have at least some success "digging it out" from all the obscuring dust clouds.
Perhaps you can also start to pick up some of the intense light from the violent star formation occurring in the central regions of this galaxy??! (totally invisible at 600nm)
I would suggest that, whatever you do (or do not) uncover in your NIR image of NGC 253, the overall structure of this galaxy will at least be clearer in an NIR image.
The central starburst and the bar are clearly seen in this image from WISE, which is at about 4 microns:
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Another galaxy in which the optical-regime morphology is greatly falsified by a dusty patchy semi-chaotic screen of obscuring material is NGC 2903; it is really tough to see the outline of the bar clearly in NGC 2903, despite a more favourable orientation than NGC 253.
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