Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.64 arcsec / pixel.  Zoomify image scale is 0.64 to 3.08 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Gen I Filters

Acquisition Data

5/16/2010 to 6/9/2010 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft,  AOL guided

Exposure

Lum (no filter)  390 min (26 x 15 min, bin 1x1)

RGB                225 min ( 5 x 15 min each, bin 2x2)

Software

• CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin. Noel Carboni's actions and Russell Croman's GradientXTerminator.

• eXcalibrator for (u-g), (g-r) color calibration, using 5 stars from the SDSS7 database.

• PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair hot/cold pixels and column defects.

• CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures, LRGB color, and luminance deconvolution.

• PhotoShop for LLRGB combine &  on-linear stretching.

North is ~ to top.  The image is rotated 10° clockwise.

NGC 5945, along with the other galaxies in the image, are located in the constellation Boötes. NGC 5945 is a beautiful example of a barred galaxy, with two nearly circular spiral arms. The two arms appear to have a high concentration of hot young blue stars. Just above the rings is a blue area, of possibly similar stars, that appear to have become slightly disconnected from the galaxy. This area probably created the oval ring that surrounds the galaxy.

To the far right, of NGC 5945, is a wonderful pair of interacting galaxies... NGC 5934 and 5935.

At the center of the image is the NGC 5943. Closer examination reveals a jet coming from the left side of the galaxy. This jet may be related to the large, and faint, cloud that extends to the upper right and lower left of NGC 5943.

Unfortunately, searching the Internet revealed little information about these galaxies. The above is all speculation by the author... an amateur astronomer.