Spoiler:
Dragonfly 44 is not presented in the original revision but
revision E.
I came to learn about Dragonfly 44 back in maybe 2017 through
Sky & Telescope. A research team assembled 10+ Canon 400mm f2.8 lens array from a remote dark site. They made the discovery and took the picture of the unknown diffuse galaxy at that time.
I recall I read that even the Hubble telescope scanned the region five times before locating the object. I couldn't find the citation now.
Wiki says its magnitude is about 21. It's way far beyond my reach when I was shooting from backyard or even from our club's dark site (class 4). I have been salivating though it was obviously a quite luxurious thought to take a picture of it.
Now it's a totally different story. Being at one of the best remote sites, our 300s gain 0 lum subs (asi6200mm) can easily capture mag 22+ targets after integration. Even squeezing MaskGen in PixInsight with the latest
DR3 database to its very limit couldn't cover the tiniest stars in our masters. Interestingly, my friend Joe has made a successful
attempt last year after two whole nights of imaging.
I figured it's time to see the limit of our equipment and seeing condition. Though this target is about Abell 1656 (Coma Cluster), the full FOV is intentionally oriented to accommodate the dark target. There is no crop in
revisions E/
F.
I'd say under our class 2 sky, the performance of the optics is expected. Besides this faint Dragonfly 44, a lot other objects are on par or even darker. Enjoy finding and looking!
Ps,
Hubble/ESA released the data of NGC 4291 in 2016 and a magnificent processing won APOD in 2019.
It is the grand design spiral galaxy in the lower central part of my picture.
#TeamNoctuaDSNM
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