by Rod Pommier
Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with 0.75x Astro Physics focal reducer.
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium LRGB filters.
Additional Equipment: SBIG AO-L adaptive optics at 4.5 Hz
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA
Dates: 2013/07/08 through 2013/07/17
Exposures: L:R:G:B=280:150:140:140 minutes=11 hours 50 minutes total exposure.
This remarkable field in Draco shows three galaxies of different morphology in an area the size of a half moon. The upper galaxy is NGC 5985, a face-on class SBb spiral galaxy. The middle galaxy is NGC 5982, a class E3 elliptical galaxy. The bottom galaxy is NGC 5981, an edge on class SB spiral galaxy. These galaxies lie between 100 and 140 million light-years from Earth. Numerous other more distant galaxies are visible throughout the field.