Hamburger Galaxy

[Bill Richards]

Affectionately known as the "Hamburger Galaxy" (aka NGC 3628), about 35 million light years from Earth. It is seen edge-on and the thick, dark dust clouds along the outer rim obscure the light from the stars in the galaxy giving the appearance of a hamburger between two buns. There are two other nearby galaxies (outside this frame) which interacted at some point in the distant past, causing deformations. This is most visible in the dark dust bands that appear tilted with respect to each other. There is a line of stars that were thrown from the galaxy, creating a VERY faint line extending (toward the 10 o'clock position) for over 300,000 light years. The line may not be visible in social media posts.

This is the result of over 6 hours of exposure time taken on 3/9/2024.

Equipment and Software:
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Mount: iOption CEM40 w/iPolar
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8 w/0.7x focal reducer
Auto-Focuser: Rigel Systems nFOCUS
Imaging Camera: ASI2600MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ASI174MM-Mini on OAG
Imaging Software: NINA
Guiding Software: PHD2
Image Processing Software: PixInsight

Exposure Details:
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Camera Temperature -15C
Bias: 50
Gain: 100
6 x 180sec + 88 x 240sec
Plus 32x Darks, Flats, and Dark Flats

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[JimFox]

Awesome Bill! Love the detail in this. I haven't thought about the Hamburger galaxy in a while. It's so cool seeing these certain galaxies on edge like this.

I might have to duplicate what you did with this, I may get more time on the comet Pons-Brook and then go after the Hamburger Galaxy again. I think it's been about 3 years since I captured it.

 

[Dan Moorehead]

A beautiful capture

 

[Mike Lewis]

Love the closeup of this galaxy, often shot smaller as part of the 'Trio'. Good to see it with more details here, including the faint tidal tail heading out of frame to the left.

ML