Maffei 2 – NIR Tricolor

Maffei 2 – NIR Tricolor

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Description

This is the first test of Astrodon’s new Near-Infrared (NIR) tri-color imaging filters.  This image is analogous to a visible LRGB image except the L is a NIR long-pass filter letting all NIR light pass to the CCD and blocking all UV and Visible light.  The 3 "color" filters correspond to 700-800 nm (NIR1), 800-900 nm (NIR2) and >880 nm (NIR3).  These filters were designed to have similar flux with Kodak E-Series CCD detectors for a G2V white-point. The color combine weights for a G2V white point are 0.85:1.00:1.21.  NIR1, NIR2, and NIR3 are mapped to B, G, R in order of increasing wavelength. 
This is a nearby spiral galaxy, dramatically dimmed and reddened by dust in the outer disk of the Milky Way; only about 1 per cent of the galaxy’s blue light reaches us. Maffei 2 is a very interesting object for study in the infrared and radio regimes, which show it to be a barred spiral galaxy with a nuclear burst of star formation (one of the nearest examples of this process). One of two such galaxies discovered by Paolo Maffei, this is within one degree of the galactic plane in Cassiopeia. Maffei 2 and the giant elliptical galaxy Maffei 1 are so close to us that some workers, such as Gene Byrd and collaborators, have calculated that these galaxies’ gravitational inf 

Image Date: 08/04/2005
Details: Exposure Time: 100 min Total; 40 min NIR Lum, 20 min each NIR 1,2,3
Camera: SBIG  ST-10XME
Telescope: RC Optical  Carbon Truss 12.5 inch f/9 Ritchey-Chretien
Mount: Software Bisque  Paramount ME

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