the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
click the image for a 50% pixel view or HERE to return to the index page

 OK, this is the most difficult so far... for many reasons, not the least of which is its very low position in the sky for me.... subject
to the worst area of sky glow makes imaging this very dim bunch of stars a challenge. Look below at the unprocessed stack of 15 subs.

This tiny galaxy is a member of the Local Group, and a satellite of the Milky Way like the Leo II and Sextans Dwarf and others.
These galaxies are very low in carbon making them similar to primitive galaxies at the edge of the universe. There is a very
faint carbon star within the upper edge string of stars that I con only imagine... maybe, maybe not...


 Telescope Explore Scientific David H. Levy Comet Hunter Maksutov-Newtonian 152mm f/4.8 mounted piggyback on Meade LX 200 Classic 12 inch
Camera Canon XT/350d modified with Baader type 1 filter by Hap Griffin
Exposure  11 five-minute sub-exposures at iso 1600
 Guiding  PHD Guide from Stark labs with Meade DSI pro I on Meade 12-inch LX 200 Classic at f/3.3
 Software  Images acquired, calibrated, stacked and color corrected with Nebulosity 2.2.4 from Stark Labs. Further processing in Photoshop CS 3.
on-line links to more information 

  some technical data can be found on the ADS site at
<http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1961AJ.....66..384H/0000384.000.html>

there are several recent posts regarding the carbon star and so on, find them on google images...


December 8th 2010 - Julian CA

the raw stack, no processing, no galaxy!