Maffei II Galaxy in Cassiopeia
(RA 2h 41.9m , Dec. +59°36')
This is a very large barred spiral galaxy. It shines at magnitude 8 in infrared - unfortunately being almost exactly behind equatorial plane of our Milky Way (see finder chart below) it is barely detectable at optical wavelenghts. It is the member of Maffei I group.
The above image was taken on January 3, 2002 from Harrowsmith, Ontario using Cookbook 245 LDC CCD camera on Celestron Ultima 8 f6.3 telescope, autoguided with Cookbook 211 LDC camera on a piggybacked 500mm f8 telephoto lens. It is composed of eleven white exposures (240 sec. each) processed with AIP4WIN.
Light fog and rising bright Moon (4 days past full) washed out the image of that very difficult target. North is to the left.
Map created in Guide 7.0 - 7°45' x 10°. North is up.
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© Jan Wisniewski