My name is Peter Nerbun. I'm an astrophotographer who lives in
Perry Hall, Maryland in the USA.
Here are the astrophotos I captured with my C11 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) and ATIK 460EX astronomy camera. Please click on any one of the images to see a description of how and when I captured that particular image. After you've read the description please click on the green oval icon at the top left corner of this page, this will take you back to the page showing all of my astrophoto images.
This is my image of galaxy NGC 7331 together with 4 other galaxies collectively referred to as the Deer Lick Galaxy group. These galaxies range between 49 and 490 million light years from Earth. NGC 7331 is often referred to as the Milky Way's twin due to its similar appeareance; this galaxy is about 30% larger in diameter than our own galaxy.
I captured this group of galaxies with a C-11 SCT over 5 nights in October 2017 using LRGB color filters on the following dates; please note the exposure times for each filter and the number of frames per filter on the dates specified:
Luminance: Oct 19 2017 -- 13x4mins= 52mins
Luminance: Oct 21 2017 -- 12x8mins + 1x6mins= 102mins
Red: Oct 17 2017 -- 18x4mins + 2x5mins = 82mins
Green: Oct 20 2017 -- 18x4mins= 72mins
Blue: Oct 18 2017 -- 26x4mins = 104mins
Total Integration Time = 412mins = 6.8 hours
In addition to the C-11 SCT I used an ATIK460EX main imaging camera, a Lodestar X2 guide camera an On Axis Guider (ONAG), an F/6.3 Reducer and a Starlight Instruments motorized programmable focuser control system.