NGC 613 from remote
In 2024, I received a high-quality dataset from Telescope Live featuring the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613, which I processed to bring out its rich structural detail and color contrast.
Located in the constellation Sculptor, NGC 613 lies approximately 65–70 million light-years away. It is classified as a barred spiral galaxy (SBbc) and is particularly striking because of its strong central bar and well-defined, multi-armed spiral structure. The bar acts as a dynamical mechanism that channels gas inward toward the galactic nucleus, fueling intense star formation in the central region.
NGC 613 is also known to host an active galactic nucleus (AGN), with radio observations revealing jet-like structures emerging from its core. These features suggest the presence of a central supermassive black hole actively accreting material. Deep imaging highlights bright blue star-forming regions along the spiral arms, interspersed with reddish dust lanes that trace the galaxy’s internal dynamics. The dataset from Telescope Live provided excellent depth and resolution, allowing fine detail in both the luminous core and the delicate outer arms to be preserved in the final image.
The data calibration, registration and the final processing of the Telescope Live data was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows:
In the image you can find a lot of quasars. The most distant of them is:
MQ J013434.22-293205.6 with a redshift of z=2.6.
Here is an overview of the used equipment and the exposure times:
- Date: 2024
- Location: Chile
- Telescope/Lense: Planwave CDK24
- Focal length [mm]: 3962
- Focal ratio: 6.5
- Mount: Mathis MI-1000/1250
- Camera: QHY 600M Pro
- Autoguiding: yes
- Filter: L:R:G:B
- Exposure time [min]: 170:150:150:155
- Resolution: 0.39″/px bin 2
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