NGC 2841 | A Galaxy Headed For Retirement

Image Description and Details : Having lost most of its star forming hydrogen clouds, NGC 2841 is domintated by mature yellow and red stars. Several encircling rings of dust can just be seen here about doubling the apparant diameter of the otherwise 8' disk. Extreme stretches also show a very faint arm trailing off to the right. This arm might suggest some galacitc interaction, but that seems at odds with such a lack of star formation. Maybe the interaction was a long time ago or very limited? The Ha data I shot confirms the lack of HII emissions.  

41 total hours about half in Luminance. A super luminance was used with the RGB masters to try and tease out the outer rings. My Bortle 3 site may be at the limit to capture these. My FHWM cut off was over 3" to keep integration time high. To add sharpness to the galaxy detail I did a second Luminance with a 2.4" cutoff and blended that with a mask.

Planewave CDK14, Planewave L-350, QHY600M

Copyright: Kevin Morefield