PGC 2248: When Pebble Meets Pond--SPLASH!Capture Rig:OTA: CDK24
Camera: Moravian 61000
Pixel Resolution: 0.39” (binned 2x)
Observatory: Heaven’s Miror
Date of Capture: 2023-2024
Date of Processing: Sep ‘24
Exposures Used:Narrowband: 9.5h
Image Width: 9’ 18” (2x zoom image A)
Processing Tools:1. Commercial: PixInsight, Topaz, Radiant Photo, PhotoDirector, 3DLUT Creator, Aurora HDR
2. Pixinsight Addons: NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator
3. My Scripts: NB_Assistant, AC_Restar, Subframe Weighting Tool (w/ J. Hunt), ColorTweaker, StarTweaker
Target Description:John Bozeman has an excellent rendition of this target from JWT data as well as a full description.
See Here.
In brief, PGC 2248 is though to have collided with a smaller galaxy moving roughly perpendicular to the plane of the spiral arms. This collision sent a gravitational shockwave outward that, like a rock tossed in a pond, caused a radial spray or splash of stars. This
YouTube video shows the effect: Amazingly similar to the galaxy at one point in the process. Of course, the underlying pebble-water and galaxy-galaxy collisions are vastly different.
Processing Description:No uncommon procedures were invoked to process this image.
Target Statistics:Distance: 92M ly
Pixel Span at Target: 9E14 km
Alex Woronow 
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