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           IC 1613     
       Dwarf Galaxy in Cetus
      RA:01h 04m 36s  Dec: +02° 07' 00" Distance - ~2.3 million ly  Size ~16x14 arc/sec


Click on image for larger size
Location & Date
Backyard, Abbott Observatory- Long Island, NY,  November 2021
Telescope
Orion ED80 F/7 APO, Moonlite focuser, iOptron GEM45G, Pegasus Falcon rotator
Image scale 2.54 arcsec/pixel
Camera
SBIG ST-2000XM
Baader  L R G B  filters
CCD temp -15°C
Exposures
  L- 69 x 5m  Red- 12 x 5m  Green - 12 x 5m  Blue- 12 x 5m   Bin 1x1  per panel
Planning & Acquisition
Image planning - Sequence Generator Pro Mosaic Planning
Image acquisition - Sequence Generator Pro w/PinPoint & PHD2 (guiding)
Processing
CCDStack -  Calibration, Normalize, Alignment,  Deconvolution
Adobe PS -  LRGB combine, Color adjustments, Noise reduction, Sharpen, JPEG conversion
RC-Astro Star XTerminator



   IC 1613 (Caldwell 51) is a dwarf irregular galaxy located in the constellation Cetus and was discovered by Max Wolf in 1906. This galaxy is a member of the Local Group of galaxies and has a morphological classification of IBm (Irregular Barred - Magellanic type). Irregular galaxies are those that don't fit into the Hubble sequence of galaxy classification and often have chaotic structure, lack spiral arms and no nuclear bulge. It's believed that these galaxies are shaped so because of gravitational influences from passing galaxies or larger neighboring ones.
   IC 1613 has a very low surface brightness and so little dust that background galaxies can been seen behind it in this image. The center has a visible bar like structure and overall has several star forming regions as evident by the red HIII regions surrounding hot blue O/B stars. Star ages range from 20 million to 10 billion years old.

This is an initial stretch of the 6.5 hour exposure for Luminance.
Cropped Lum channel initially processed and stretched in CCDStack prior to deconvolution
Lum channel after 150 passes of Positive Constraint deconvolution in CCDStack