NGC 2841

Spiral Galaxy in the Constellation Ursa Major

NGC 2841 is an inclined unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. Initially thought to be about 30 million light years distant, a 2001 Hubble Space Telescope survey of the galaxy's Cepheid variables determined that it was approximately 14.1 megaparsecs or 46 million light years distant, with a diameter of approximately 130,000 light-years, compared to 100,000 light years diameter for our own Milky Way galaxy.  Structurally, NGC 2841 is noted for its large population of young blue stars, and few H II star-forming regions.  This galaxy has also had a history of supernovae explosions within it.

Image Information  Courtesy of Wikipedia and NOAO

Image Details:

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  • Instrument:  Planewave Instruments CDK 12.5 with Astro-Physics AP27TVPH focal reducer @ f/6.2 (1971mm)
  • Mount:  AP1200GTOCP3
  • Image Scale:  0.98 arc-seconds per pixel after processing
    Camera: SBIG ST-2000XM with AO8 Adaptive Optics and CFW10 Color Filter Wheel using Custom Scientific LRGB filters 
    Filters & Exposure Times:
    • L:  18 x 5 minutes binned 1 x 1
    • R:  36 x 5 minutes binned 1 x 1
      G:  18 x 5 minutes binned 1 x 1
      B:  28 x 5 minutes binned 1 x 1
    • Super-Luminance Layer used for L-[LRGB]-RGB Stacking
    • Multiple Luminance Layering in Photoshop (technique as described by Rob Gendler)
    • Total equivalent unbinned exposure time of 15.2 hours
    Software: Maxim DL/CCD, CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS2, RC Astro Gradient X-Terminator
    Location:  C.A.A.S. East Observatory, Little Rock, AR., El. 650ft
    Date: January 29th, 2011

Wade Van Arsdale
Little Rock, AR., USA
February 10th, 2011