Interacting Galaxies in Eridanus

This pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies is located in the southern constellation of Eridanus (the River). They are outlying members of the Fornax Cluster of galaxies.

They are so close to one another that gravitational forces have distorted one of the spiral arms of the larger galaxy, NGC 1532. These forces have triggered bursts of star formation in both galaxies, but more so in NGC 1532 where a new generation of massive stars have been created.

 

NGC 1532, also known as Haley's Coronet is a nearly edge-on deformed barred spiral galaxy about 180 thousand light-years across. It is laced with incredible dust lanes, making this a dramatic target to image. It is receding from us at about 1040 kilometres per second. NGC 1531 is a dwarf technically classified as a peculiar lenticular galaxy; the galaxy's structure is better described as amorphous.

 

Exposure Details:

Red 21X600

Green 30X600

Blue 32X600

Lum 56X900

 

Total Exposure: 27.83 Hours

 

Instruments:

Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS

Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono

Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900

Focal Length: 2310.00 mm

Pixel size: 9.00 um

Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

Done