Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2897 mm fl) 0.64 arcsec / pixel.  The Zoomify image scale is 0.64 to 2.56 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

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

Acquisition Data

10/17/2011 to 10/27/2011 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 &/ CCDSoft.  AOL guided

Exposure

Lum 450 min (30 x 15 min, bin 1x1 (best 30 of 46)

RGB 360 min ( 8 x 15 min each, bin 2x2)

Software & Processing

CCDSoft, CCDStack, PixInsight, Photoshop CS3, Noel Carboni's actions.

Color Balance: The integrated light of the galaxy was used for the white reference.

PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair column defects.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject,  combine the sub exposures, RGB combine & selective deconvolution.

PixInsight for gradient removal.

PhotoShop for non-linear stretching, LRGB combine and noise reduction with the Noiseware Pro plug-in.

North is to the top.

NGC 7479 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy located in Pegasus, at a distance of about 90 million light-years. William Herschel discovered the galaxy in 1784. With an 8-inch [200-mm] telescope, NGC 7479 is visible as an elongated fuzzy blob.

Recent observations, at near-infrared wavelengths, with the Hubble Space Telescope, show that the 'S' shaped arms rotate counterclockwise. However, data at radio wavelengths show a jet of radiation that spins the other way. A past merger with another galaxy is believed to have caused the reverse spin of the radio jet.