Centaurus A (NGC 5128)
All images on this web page Copyright © 2006, Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved. Contact and Image Use Information

This is a very interesting spiral/elliptical galaxy in the constellation Centaurus, which is very low in the southern sky from the US, even from Texas. The dark dust lane through the middle is remarkable. When I started imaging this guy at 4:00 a.m. it was only 15 degrees above the horizon, and only 16 degrees when I finished up.

As usual, SEDS has an interesting discussion of this object, and I'll refer you there for more information.

Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor), Losmandy G-11 mount. 7x4minute - 28 minutes total exposure 1/31/2006 around 4:00 a.m. My current image processing workflow is here.