NGC 6744 – Postcard from space by Terry Robison Via Flickr: Spiral galaxy located in the constellation Pavo 30 million years ago, light from this beautiful spiral galaxy located in the constellation Pavo started its journey into the cosmos. At this time, Earth was in the Oligocene period. Australia was colliding with New Guinea, the Drake Passage opens, and the circum-polar current is formed shaping the climates and vegetation found today. This beautiful spiral galaxy is about 30 million light-years away from us and spans an impressive diameter of 175,000 light-years across. That makes NGC 6744 approximately 75% larger than the Milky Way. It is thought to be one of the most Milky Way-like spiral galaxies in our immediate vicinity. This is how our galaxy would look in a picture postcard if we could see it from extra-galactic space. Imaged 20 June 2015, Heathcote, Australia Image Exposures Blue 5 X 450 Sec Green 6 X 450 Sec Red 7 X 450 Sec Lum 20 X 600 Sec Instruments Telescope: ………. 10″ Ritchey-Chrétien (RCOS) Focal Length: ….. 2300.00 mm Camera: ………….. SBIG STL-11000 Mono Pixel size: ……….. 9.00 um Resolution: …….. 0.82 arcsec/pix Mount: …………… Astro-Physics AP-900 Processing Tools CCDStack: ……………. Calibration, stacking, noise reduction Photoshop: ………….. General image processing – Gatlinburg Garden Castle Rainbow Tower Library Imagination Station Temple Water Spirit Guardian Labyrinth Treasury Magic Healing