The Tadpole galaxy:
9 hours ago
- The Tadpole galaxy has a massive and bright tidal tail, but no obvious companion galaxy; it is suspected there is a second galaxy behind it, with a nearby elliptical having a similar redshift.
- Total exposure time was 3 hours (364 × 30 seconds), with 1.3 hours (165 × 30 seconds) used in the final stack.
- Telescope: C9.25 (230mm, f/10, focal length 2300mm) with a 0.63 Starizona reducer; camera: IMX533 (16mm diagonal, square, color).
- Processing steps: calibration (dark + flat), stacking with outlier rejection, white balance and background subtraction, asinh stretch (color preserving), rotation/crop, and tone curve.
- The result is noted as not the finest work due to patchy clouds but still acceptable; links to raw stacks and Arp's image are provided.