Showing posts with label Observation Log. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Observation Log. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Trio of Interacting Galaxies in Virgo
A trio of interacting galaxies in Virgo about 90 million light years
away. This trio is also included in Halton's Atlas of Peculiar galaxies
as entry ARP286. NGC5566 is the largest galaxy of the 3 at almost
150,000 light years across. NGC5560 has been stretched by the
interaction with 5566.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
NGC4449 Galaxy in Canes Venatici
NGC4449 is a very unique object. It is a irregular galaxy ~12Mly distant in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M94 group.
Its shape is attributed to interactions with nearby galaxies. It has many star clusters and is believed to have a very high rate of star formation.
It exhibits excellent detail and seems to have a central bar structure with many filaments growing outwards.
The Hubble picture (inset) shows the incredible amount of star formation in exquisite detail.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
The Coma and Leo Galaxy Clusters
The Coma and Leo Clusters of Galaxies (Abell 1656, 1367)
This region of the sky is extremely rich in galaxies. The coma cluster along with the Leo cluster (abell 1367) of galaxies form part of the Coma supercluster.
At the center of the cluster are the two bright supergaint elliptical galaxies N4889 (also NGC4884) and N4874.
N4889 is ~300 Mly away and N4874 is~350 Mly
The smaller galaxy just north of NGC4889 in the image is N4882 and is ~310 Mly.
This region of the sky is extremely rich in galaxies. The coma cluster along with the Leo cluster (abell 1367) of galaxies form part of the Coma supercluster.
At the center of the cluster are the two bright supergaint elliptical galaxies N4889 (also NGC4884) and N4874.
N4889 is ~300 Mly away and N4874 is~350 Mly
The smaller galaxy just north of NGC4889 in the image is N4882 and is ~310 Mly.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Mag 21.7 Quasar in Virgo
Decided to go Quasar hunting. Conditions were very good this evening (or rather as
good as it gets here... NELM 4 -4.25 at zenith), low humidity
Managed to get down to mag 21.7 using short exposures 10x25s (average stack) using the Ultrastar mono x2 binned. This was using the C8 at F5. No LP filter.
The NGC4666 (Superwind field is littered with Quasars). I identified and marked 3 but there are more in the image.
The most distant one in the image that I marked is barely visible and required an aggressive stretch. It has a magnitude of 21.7 and a redshift of 2.25 which means light from that quasar has been traveling for ~11.6 billion light years. If you take into account the expansion of space time the distance today would be ~19 billion light years. Pretty much incomprehensible scale.
The mag 21.7 quasar is at the limit of detection using this sensor and short exposures. The pixel size makes a big difference in the ability to go deep. With x2 bin the Ultrastar Mono has large 13 micron pixels which are able to capture very faint electromagnetic flux.
Managed to get down to mag 21.7 using short exposures 10x25s (average stack) using the Ultrastar mono x2 binned. This was using the C8 at F5. No LP filter.
The NGC4666 (Superwind field is littered with Quasars). I identified and marked 3 but there are more in the image.
The most distant one in the image that I marked is barely visible and required an aggressive stretch. It has a magnitude of 21.7 and a redshift of 2.25 which means light from that quasar has been traveling for ~11.6 billion light years. If you take into account the expansion of space time the distance today would be ~19 billion light years. Pretty much incomprehensible scale.
The mag 21.7 quasar is at the limit of detection using this sensor and short exposures. The pixel size makes a big difference in the ability to go deep. With x2 bin the Ultrastar Mono has large 13 micron pixels which are able to capture very faint electromagnetic flux.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
M87 relativistic jet
M87 relativistic jet. Exposure time: 4x25s using the Ultrastar mono and a Evolution C8 @ F5
Jet of plasma being ejected by a massive black hole consuming matter. It is also one of the strongest radio sources in the sky. It extends about ~5 thousand light years from the center of M87 (which is one of the most massive elliptical galaxies known to us. The full extent of the jet can be seen in Hubble pictures.
The challenge in capturing this jet is not to overexpose the galaxy. Hence the jet is actually better captured in very short exposures. Observing conditions are also very important. While the light pollution at my location was unchanged this evening presented relatively good seeing conditions.
More here: https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Messier_87
See this Hubble video as it zooms in on the jet (composite of images taken over 13 years to show how the jet changes): https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/opo1332a/
Hubble image of the jet:
Jet of plasma being ejected by a massive black hole consuming matter. It is also one of the strongest radio sources in the sky. It extends about ~5 thousand light years from the center of M87 (which is one of the most massive elliptical galaxies known to us. The full extent of the jet can be seen in Hubble pictures.
The challenge in capturing this jet is not to overexpose the galaxy. Hence the jet is actually better captured in very short exposures. Observing conditions are also very important. While the light pollution at my location was unchanged this evening presented relatively good seeing conditions.
More here: https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Messier_87
See this Hubble video as it zooms in on the jet (composite of images taken over 13 years to show how the jet changes): https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/opo1332a/
Hubble image of the jet:
 |
| Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) |
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