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I imaged this pathologic galaxy – NGC1055 in Cetus. It is a 7.6′ diameter, mag. 10.6 edge-on spiral SBb: II-III:spindle beauty flanked by 6th and 7th mag. yellow (G5) and blue (F0) stars as well as a 10th mag. red star, probably K spectral class (GSC 47:708). Taming these stars in processing is no easy task. When first processing the galaxy image, it looks pretty typical but then, with more stretching, a haze develops over the hub which looks, at first, like artifact. The image above is a 10-hour LRGB image all taken 1X1 with the 14.5-inch RC and Apogee Camera @ -20C. This galaxy shows considerable star formation as evidenced by the large hydrogen-alpha regions easily seen. A deep inverted composite image really shows the disturbed mantle showing spikes of material projecting out. This is apparently the result of gravitation from nearby galaxy M77 one Moon diameter away (actually 442,000 light-years). California amateurs Ken Crawford and Jay GaBany, among others, are carrying out a large study of “Stellar Tidal Streams in Spiral Galaxies” (link below) which includes NGC1055/M77. Ken Crawford’s amazing image of NGC1055 made it to APOD April 2010 (link below). He and Jay GaBany really know how to handle and deliver those bright stars!
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100424.html – Fabulous APOD image!
http://www.cosmotography.com/images/stellar_stream_survey_science_highlights.html – Stellar Tidal Streams article