NGC 6744: Spiral Galaxy in Pavo
“A large intermediate spiral galaxy in Pavo, tens of millions of light-years away, often compared to the Milky Way, with extended arms and a distorted companion, NGC 6744A.”
NGC 6744 is an intermediate spiral galaxy (SAB(r)bc) in the constellation Pavo. ESO gives its distance as about 30 million light-years, while other estimates are lower, around 24 million. NASA gives its diameter as about 175,000 light-years, larger than the Milky Way. James Dunlop discovered it on 30 June 1826 from Parramatta, Australia.
ESO describes it as close to what our own galaxy would look like from outside, with spiral arms around a dense, elongated nucleus and a dusty disc. Its nucleus is a LINER with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. A distorted companion galaxy, NGC 6744A, resembles one of the Magellanic Clouds.
The outer arms are faint and need a long integration to show.
The data was captured remotely from Swan Reach, South Australia, over six nights, in collaboration with Paride Gabini, Rino Morra, Federico Palaia and Alessio Carmine Scipione, on a rig operated with NINA at Swan Reach Imaging (https://swanreachimaging.com.au). The frames were collected jointly by the group sharing the rig. Stacked and processed in PixInsight.
Integration
| Filter | Subs |
|---|---|
| L | 93 x 300s (7h 45m) |
| R | 32 x 300s (2h 40m) |
| G | 32 x 300s (2h 40m) |
| B | 32 x 300s (2h 40m) |