NGC 7497 & Integrated Flux Nebula (MBM 54) in Pegasus

This deep LRGB field showcases the spiral galaxy NGC 7497, located approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

What makes this target so striking is the optical interplay between NGC 7497 and the high-latitude galactic dust cloud MBM 54 (part of the Integrated Flux Nebula or IFN). While NGC 7497 lies deep in extragalactic space, the dust nebula is a foreground structure located within our own Milky Way galaxy, only a few hundred light-years above the galactic plane. The high-contrast, extended integration resolves the delicate, translucent veil of dust clouds sweeping across the field, with distant background galaxies like PGC 70569 visible in the wider field.

Technical Details & Acquisition

Target: NGC 7497 (UGC 12389)

Additional Objects: Integrated Flux Nebula (MBM 54 / High Galactic Latitude Dust), PGC 70569, background galaxy field

Date: July 15, 2023

Telescope: Planewave CDK24 (24" / 61 cm f/6.5 Corrected Dall-Kirkham)

Camera: QHY 600M Pro (CMOS)

Mount: Mathis Instruments MI-1000/1250

Location: Telescope.Live CHI-1 (El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile)

Processing: PixInsight (WBPP, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, LRGBCombination, SpectrophotometricColorCalibration, Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch)

Total Integration: 10 hours 55 minutes (655 minutes)

Green: 35 x 300" (2h 55m)

Luminance: 32 x 300" (2h 40m)

Red: 32 x 300" (2h 40m)

Blue: 32 x 300" (2h 40m)