Astronomy Adventure – NGC 253
Living in an area where the Bortle Scale is somewhere between 6 and 7 makes things pretty difficult for capturing deep-sky objects in particular. NGC 253, or the Silver Dollar galaxy, is part of the Sculptor cluster and is one of the most intrinsically bright galaxies. Despite that, I had never been able to even see it despite enduring many nights of frustration knowing it was supposed to be right there. Finally, on a recent night of extraordinarily good seeing, I finally managed to catch sight of it with averted vision. A short, 20 second photo, however, easily captured the galaxy, illustrating the power of a camera to capture more light than the human eye.
Taken with NightCap Pro. Long Exposure mode, 20.05 second exposure.
And here is the same photo with a few adjustments using Curves on Gimp.
Taken with NightCap Pro. Long Exposure mode, 20.05 second exposure.