NGC 2481
Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

RA: 09h 22m Dec: +50º 58' Mag: 10.0 Size (ly):150,000 Distance (ly):46 million

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   NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy located in Ursa Major. One characteristic is its decoupled nucleus. An explanation of this is as follows:
The stellar nucleus of NGC 2841 was found to be chemically decoupled, being more metal rich than surrounding bulge by a factor of 2.3; moreover, nuclear ionized gas demonstrated rotation in the plane strictly orthogonal to the global galactic plane (and to the rotation plane of stars in the center of the galaxy too). It looks like a small gaseous polar ring. Global polar rings are usually treated as signatures of past interaction with gas accretion or even of a minor merger.
(Global Structure and Kinematics of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841 - V.L. Afanasiev & O.K. Sil'chenko 1998)

Location & Date Backyard, Abbott Observatory - Feb 26 & March 17, 2009
Temperature - Low 30's F
Telescope Deep Sky Instruments RC10C , F/7.3 on a Losmandy G11 Gemini, Prime Focus, Image scale 0.82 arcsec/pixel
Camera SBIG ST-2000XM w/CFW8, AO8
Astrodon Tru Balance LRGB Filters
CCD temp -15°C
Exposure Times (L) 20 X 10, (R) 6x10, (G) 6x10,(B) 6x10 Minutes, Bin 1x1
Other Information Image acquisition/focus/guiding/dither - CCD Autopilot4 w/CCDSoft/TheSky6/PinPoint
Image Processing * Images Plus 3.75a- Calibration, Grading, Normalize, Alignment, Sigma Average Combine, Mild DDP
* Adobe CS4 - L+RGB combine, Levels, Curves, Sharpening, Cropping, NR, JPEG conversion

© 2009 Michael A. Siniscalchi