View allAll Photos Tagged SPIRALGALAXY
The Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194) with its smaller companion M51b or NGC 5195. M51 is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy approximately 31 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.
This session was really just a test of a new Arduino-based tracking and guiding system following the burning out of the chips that drive the motors on the mount. This should hopefully be a more robust unit once it's soldered and boxed up (at the moment it's just circuitry and loose wires exposed to the elements) but we needed to know that it works...and happily, it does. So in order to test and tweak the system we chose a nice, easy, well-positioned target. The image came out surprisingly well considering the hazy sky, high humidity, full Moon, and ubiquitous light pollution that we had to contend with. It's a relief to be up and running again after a month or so of being unable to do any imaging at all.
28/02/2021
034 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 50 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Optolong L-Pro filter
At the eastern edge of where the Virgo Cluster appears on our sky are these two elliptical galaxies, M59 (on the right) and M60 (on the left). Because they are part of a cluster, there are many other galaxies in the same field of view. These include the spiral, NGC 4647, which appears through the outer regions of M60. Toward the top is NGC 4641, and NGC 4637 and 4638 overlap toward the bottom of this picture.
This is a stack of 18 4 minute guided exposures through a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Initial processing in Nebulosity; stacking and processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
The center (J2000) of the image is at
RA 12h 42m 43s
DEC +11° 43' 5"
The image spans a region 42' x 57'.
M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, with companions, M32 below and M110 above. This is a stack of 15 x 7 minute exposures to go fairly deep, all at ISO 800 with the Canon 5D MkII on the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg 0.85s flattener/reducer. Taken from New Mexico, Dec. 22, 2014.
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, known collectively as Arp 271.
Original caption: This image shows a pair of interacting galaxies known as Arp 271. Individually, these galaxies are named NGC 5426 and NGC 5427; both are spirals, and both are roughly the same size. Some astronomers believe that these galaxies are in the process of merging to form a single entity. This interaction will create increasing numbers of new stars over the next few million years, some of which can be seen within the “bridge” of gas connecting the two galaxies. This kind of collision and interaction might also happen to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which is likely to collide with the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years time. These galaxies lie over 120 million light years away from us, and were discovered by the German-British astronomer William Herschel in 1785. Herschel was a prolific scientist, also discovering both infrared radiation and the planet Uranus. Link: Previous release of the same galaxy pair: www.eso.org/public/images/potw1035a/
This sweeping celestial panorama is a multi-image Hubble mosaic of a portion of the great Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31 (M31). Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. M31 is, in fact, as large on the as sky as three adjacent full moons. As a result, 7,398 exposures over 411 individual pointings of Hubble were required to assemble this image.
Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars — over 100 million here — inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. As a result, scientists can now begin to identify and study the distribution and evolution of differing stellar populations within the overall context of their locations within the galaxy at large.
Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/3476/news_release/2015-02
Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler
An unexpected clear night with the possibility of some galaxy hunting was too good an opportunity to miss, despite the full Moon which makes imaging faint objects tricky - there was a bit of a breeze too which didn't help. The target for the night was NGC 2403, an intermediate spiral galaxy approximately 8 million light years away in the constellation Camelopardalis. It bears a striking similarity to M33, being about 50,000 light years in diameter and containing numerous star-forming H II regions. The northern spiral arm connects it to the star forming region NGC 2404. NGC 2403 can be observed using 10×50 binoculars.
Information from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2403
024 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
030 x flat frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frames)
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity, Fitsworks, Lightroom and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
✨ M51 Close-Up — The Whirlpool Galaxy in Focus ✨
🔭 Scope & details:
Lights: 180x300" RGB 199x300" Luminance
Telescope: ASA 250/900 F 3.6
Camera: Player One M
Filters: Antilia
Date: 10/07/2025
Dataset: by @Michele Mazzola
#Project_Nerpio
Here’s a detailed look at Messier 51 (M51 / NGC 5194), the iconic Whirlpool Galaxy, and its companion NGC 5195 swirling together in cosmic embrace.
📍 Constellation: Canes Venatici
💫 Distance: ~31 million light-years
🌟 Apparent Magnitude: ~8.4
Coordinates (J2000): RA 13h 29m 52.4s | Dec +47° 11′ 41″
In this close-up, you can see the intricate spiral arms of M51, the bridge of material linking it to NGC 5195, and rich dust lanes weaving through both galaxies. Their gravitational interaction has triggered waves of star formation and sculpted many faint extensions that speak of past encounters.
May this view of galactic elegance and drama inspire you to look deeper into the sky — there’s always more story in every spiral.
Follow for more glimpses into the Universe’s deepest ballet ✨
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31). This is a cropped version of a picture taken of M31 at Kelvedon Common in Essex recently. I added another 8 minutes of data taken from a slightly earlier attempt in which the galaxy wasn't centered but the stars were sharper. The stacking software wasn't too happy and threw up error and memory warnings but eventually I was able to get it to stack the two sets of images and crop the output. Although far from perfect, the resulting image is fairly respectable considering the exposures were only a minute long and taken on a 105mm lens. I'm really just trying to make use of every scrap of the meagre amount of data were able to collect on what turned out to be a disappointing night because of computer problems. However I am impressed with tracking capabilities of the Star Adventurer Mini which performed very well once the polar alignment was as good as we could make it.
From Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth, and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of the Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda.
The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at a trillion solar masses. The mass of either galaxy is difficult to estimate with any accuracy, but it was long thought that the Andromeda Galaxy is more massive than the Milky Way by a margin of some 25% to 50%. This has been called into question by a 2018 study which cited a lower estimate on the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy, combined with preliminary reports on a 2019 study estimating a higher mass of the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy has a diameter of about 220,000 light-years, making it the largest member of the Local Group at least in terms of extension, if not mass.
The number of stars contained in the Andromeda Galaxy is estimated at one trillion, or roughly twice the number estimated for the Milky Way.
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in ~4.5 billion years, merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy or a large lenticular galaxy. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is among the brightest of the Messier objects making it visible to the naked eye from Earth on moonless nights, even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution.
066 x 60 second exposures at 400 ISO f/5
030 x dark frames
001 x synthetic flat frame created from one of the light frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frame)
Total integration time = 66 minutes
Captured with Star Adventurer Mini phone app
No guiding
Processed in Nebulosity, Fitswork 4, AtroFlat Pro, Photoshop
Equipment:
Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini with wedge
Tripod: Cullmann
Camera:Canon 700D
Lens:Sigma 105mm
This data was captured by Pete Williamson using The Faulkes Telescope, a 2 metre Ritchie-Chretien telescope. I was given the raw data after attending a remote imaging workshop and I've stacked and processed that data myself.
3 each of Red, Green & Blue,Each channel was stacked and stretched, then I blended them together into an RGB image. I then processed the blended image further.
I used using Deep Sky Stacker for stacking, then Photoshop CS2, Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer
From Wikipedia:
NGC 7331 (also known as Caldwell 30) is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years (12 Mpc) away in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784.[3] NGC 7331 is the brightest member of the NGC 7331 Group of galaxies. The other members of the group are the lenticular or unbarred spirals NGC 7335 and 7336, the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7337 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 7340. These galaxies lie at distances of approximately 332, 365, 348 and 294 million light years, respectively.[4] In both visible light and infrared photos of the NGC 7331, the core of the galaxy appears to be slightly off-center, with one side of the disk appearing to extend further away from the core than the opposite side.
Edited NOIRLab image of NGC 1510 and NGC 1512.
Image source: noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2210/
Original caption: The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of merging with its smaller galactic neighbor for 400 million years, and this drawn-out interaction has ignited waves of star formation and warped both galaxies.
Image Release April 8, 2010
Hubble has snapped a spectacular view of M 66, the largest "player" of the Leo Triplet, and a galaxy with an unusual anatomy: it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core. The peculiar anatomy is most likely caused by the gravitational pull of the other two members of the trio.
The unusual spiral galaxy, Messier 66, is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo. Together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, Messier 66 is the member of the Leo Triplet, a trio of interacting spiral galaxies, part of the larger Messier 66 group. Messier 66 wins in size over its fellow triplets — it is about 100 000 light-years across.
This is a composite of images obtained through the following filters: 814W (near infrared), 555W (green) and H-alpha (showing the glowing of the hydrogen gas). They have been combined so to represent the real colours of the galaxy.
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler
To learn more about this image go to: www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/heic1006a.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy UGC 12591 with lots of dusty lanes in its spiral arms.
The original image switched up and down - I rotated the image 180 degrees to make it look more esthetically pleasing (at least for me...).
Original caption: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the remarkable galaxy UGC 12591. Classified as an S0/Sa galaxy, UGC 12591 sits somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral. It lies just under 400 million light-years away from us in the westernmost region of the Pisces–Perseus Supercluster, a long chain of galaxy clusters that stretches out for hundreds of light-years — one of the largest known structures in the cosmos. The galaxy itself is also extraordinary: it is incredibly massive. The galaxy and its halo together contain several hundred billion times the mass of the Sun; four times the mass of the Milky Way. It also whirls round extremely quickly, rotating at speeds of up to 1.8 million kilometres per hour! Observations with Hubble are helping astronomers to understand the mass of UGC 1259, and to determine whether the galaxy simply formed and grew slowly over time, or whether it might have grown unusually massive by colliding and merging with another large galaxy at some point in its past.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the pretty, barred spiral galaxy NGC 2336.
Original caption: NGC 2336 is the quintessential galaxy â big, beautiful and blue â and it is captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The barred spiral galaxy stretches an immense 200 000 light-years across and is located approximately 100 million light years away in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). Its spiral arms are glittered with young stars, visible in their bright blue light. In contrast, the redder central part of the galaxy is dominated by older stars. NGC 2336 was discovered in 1876 by German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel, using a 28-centimetre telescope. This Hubble image is so much better than the view Tempel would have had â Hubbleâs main mirror is 2.4 metres across, nearly ten times the size of the telescope Tempel used. In 1987, NGC 2336 experienced a Type-Ia supernova, the only observed supernova in the galaxy since its discovery 111 years earlier.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4535.
Original caption: Located in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), around 50 million light-years from Earth, NGC 4535 is truly a stunning sight to behold. Despite the incredible quality of this image, taken from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 4535 has a hazy, somewhat ghostly, appearance when viewed from a smaller telescope. This led amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland to nickname NGC 4535 the “Lost Galaxy” in the 1950s. The bright colours in this image aren’t just beautiful to look at, as they actually tell us about the population of stars within this barred spiral galaxy. The bright blue-ish colours, seen nestled amongst NGC 4535’s long, spiral arms, indicate the presence of a greater number of younger and hotter stars. In contrast, the yellower tones of this galaxy’s bulge suggest that this central area is home to stars which are older and cooler. This galaxy was studied as part of the PHANGS survey, which aims to clarify many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation, and the overall shape and other properties of galaxies. On 11 January 2021 the first release of the PHANGS-HST Collection was made publicly available.
Skywatcher ED80 (WO II field flattener) + Canon 450D
8x180sec, ISO1600, 480mm, F/6
Larger version: Andromeda galaxy
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of two galaxies appear to be connected due to a (perhaps too) close pass to one-another.
Original caption: UGC 8335 is a strongly interacting pair of spiral galaxies resembling two ice skaters. The interaction has united the galaxies via a bridge of material and has yanked two strongly curved tails of gas and stars from the outer parts of their "bodies". Both galaxies show dust lanes in their centres. UGC 8335 is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, about 400 million light-years from Earth. It is the 238th galaxy in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the occasion of its 18th anniversary on 24th April 2008.
M81 (on the right) and M82 - a pair of galaxies we have haven't imaged for over two years so it was fun to re-visit them. This was the first proper deep sky imaging session of 2020 (a couple of earlier ones were curtailed by cloud). It was a beautifully clear night with reasonable seeing and everything was working properly so we managed to get nearly 4 hours of exposure on the target. The only slip-up was an inexplicable computer crash just after we completed the meridian flip. Re-booting and re-aligning cost us about 20 minutes but we still got plenty of good data and we didn't have to throw out any subs. Both galaxies are approximately 12 million light years away and can be found in the constellation Ursa Major. M82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or Messier 82) is a starburst galaxy and is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way with has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's center. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to Earth, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type. SN 2014J, a type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on 21 January 2014. M81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy with a diameter of 90,000 light years, about half the size of the Milky Way. We calculated the distance between M81 and M82 to be approximately 129,300 light years.
More information here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_82
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_81
045 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
050 x flat frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frames)
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 3 hours and 45 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
Even though it's only 13 million light-years distant and bright enough to be seen by amateur telescopes, the Circinus Galaxy (or ESO 97-G13) went unnoticed until the 1970s because it is located in the plane of our galaxy and hidden among the dust and gas found there. This Hubble image shows the central portion of the galaxy — no more than about one-fifth of its total size.
The galaxy is designated a type 2 Seyfert, a class of mostly spiral galaxies that have compact centers and are believed to contain massive black holes. Seyfert galaxies are themselves part of a larger class of objects called active galactic nuclei (or AGN). AGN have the ability to remove gas from the centers of their galaxies by blowing it out into space at phenomenal speeds. Astronomers have seen evidence of a powerful AGN at the center of this galaxy as well.
Hot gas, colored pink, is being ejected out of the Circinus Galaxy's central region by the massive black hole thought to reside there. Much of the galaxy’s gas, however, is concentrated in two rings. The outer ring, located about 700 light-years from the center, appears mostly red and is home to tremendous bursts of star formation. A previously unseen inner ring, visible inside the green disk, is only 130 light-years from the center.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/1010/news_release/2000-37
Credit: NASA, Andrew S. Wilson (University of Maryland); Patrick L. Shopbell (Caltech); Chris Simpson (Subaru Telescope); Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann and F. K. B. Barbosa (UFRGS, Brazil); and Martin J. Ward (University of Leicester, U.K.)
The Miky way from the Riverland in South Australia. This was about the best angle, getting this satelite dish in the shot, while not getting too much shed in the frame at the same time..
23 sec @ 5000 ISO
Messier 31 in Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy and the largest of our local group.
Shot over three nights of slowly improving darkness (now upto 5 hrs of darkness a night), this
LRGB 2x2 mosaic was exposed with 6x10min for luminance and upto 5x10min for RGB. The shutter failed completely during the project and some sub-exposures for color channels were a lost cause. The short darkness presented additional challenges with difficult gradients from twilight skies. That combined into a rather uneven set of exposures beyond my processing capabilities.
This is a 50% scaled down version of the full mosaic.
Ten beautiful years of Chandra! This image from 2001 explores a "hot halo" around spiral galaxy NGC 4631.
This image shows central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 4631 as seen edge-on from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. The Chandra data (shown in blue and purple) provide the first unambiguous evidence for a halo of hot gas surrounding a galaxy that is very similar to our Milky Way. The structure across the middle of the image and the extended faint filaments (shown in orange) represent the observation from Hubble that reveals giant bursting bubbles created by clusters of massive stars. Scientists have debated for over 40 years whether the Milky Way has an extended corona, or halo, of hot gas. Observations of NGC 4631 and similar galaxies provide astronomers with an important tool in the understanding our own galactic environment.
A team of astronomers, led by Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, observed NGC 4631 with Chandra's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) instrument. The observation took place on April 15, 2000, and its duration was approximately 60,000 seconds.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/D.Wang et al., Optical: NASA/HST/D.Wang et al.
Read more about this image: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/m15/
Read more about Chandra: www.nasa.gov/chandra
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
Stack of 11 120 s frames
2024-02-03.371 UTC
Type Ia supernova SN 2024gy is indicated by the intersection of the white line segments.
Scope: Celestron C14
Camera: SBIG STXL-6303
Filter: Antlia L
After processing with dark, bias, and flat frames, I created a median combined image (no pixel rejection) of the 11 calibrated frames and ran that through ASTAP. This gave a CV magnitude of 13.6 for the supernova.
✨ Spiral Majesty – NGC 1232 ✨
follow - share - credit
www.instagram.com/ale_motta_astrofotografia
This stunning spiral galaxy, located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus, offers a breathtaking view of the universe’s grand design. With its beautifully defined arms and glowing core, NGC 1232 is a textbook example of a spiral galaxy.
With an apparent magnitude of 10.9, NGC 1232 can be glimpsed in dark skies through medium-sized telescopes. Its beautifully structured arms and prominent core are a cosmic portrait of order and chaos in perfect harmony.
Captured from La Spezia under optimal skies, this image reveals exquisite detail and subtle hues—an intricate ballet of stars, dust, and interstellar gas stretching across 200,000 light-years.
🔭 Scope & details:
Lights: 51x300" (LRGB)
Telescope: Planewave CDK24
Camera: QHY 600M
Filters: LRGB Astrodon
Date: 28/01/2025
️ Processing: PixInsight + BlurX/NoiseX Terminator
📍 Location: La Spezia, Italy
📍 Constellation: Eridanus
🔭 Apparent Magnitude: 10.9
️ Coordinates:
Right Ascension: 03h 09m 45.9s
Declination: -20° 34′ 45″
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 3147 that holds an unusual black hole with a thin accretion disk. Color/processing variant.
Naturally enough, you can't see a black hole, but you can see its effects...
The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3147 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space in this Hubble Space Telescope image. They are actually long lanes of young blue stars, pinkish nebulas, and dust in silhouette.The beauty of the galaxy belies the fact that at its very center is a malnourished black hole surrounded by a thin, compact disk of stars, gas, and dust that have been caught up in a gravitational maelstrom. The black hole's gravity is so intense that anything that ventures near it gets swept up in the disk.The disk is so deeply embedded in the black hole's intense gravitational field that the light from the gas disk is modified, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, giving astronomers a unique peek at the dynamic processes close to a black hole.NGC 3147 is located 130 million light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Draco the Dragon.
This stunning picture is a composite of 11 observations from NASA's GALEX satellite, showing the Andromeda Galaxy, one of our nearest cosmic neighbors.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Milky Way takes center stage in this stunning night sky scene over West Lake in Everglades National Park. A beautifully restored boardwalk trail provides the perfect vantage point for stargazers to immerse themselves in the celestial wonders above.
Prints available here: mark-andrew-thomas.pixels.com/featured/cosmic-trails-mark...
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way.
Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
For more information, visit: science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-celebrates-hubbles-...
NGC 2403 - is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis, this galaxy is often compared to M33, The Pinwheel Galaxy, in the constellation of Triangulum. Burnham lists the size of this galaxy as 16’ x 10’ with a magnitude of 8.8 (visible as a hazy area with binoculars). This image is a total exposure time of 29 minutes using a stack of 18 mixed exposure images at ISO 800. Taken with a Canon T4i + 400mm lens + ZEQ25GT mount. Stacked in DSS, stretched in Imagesplus, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X6.
Editor's Note: This is an archive image from 2003.
Chandra's X-ray image (blue) has been combined with Hubble's optical image (red and green) to compose this stunning and revealing picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 3079. Towering filaments consisting of warm (about ten thousand degrees Celsius) and hot (about ten million degrees Celsius) gas blend to create the bright horseshoe-shaped feature near the center.
The correlation of the warm and hot filaments suggests that they were both formed as a superwind of gas -- rushing out from the central regions of the galaxy -- carved a cavity in the cool gas of disk galactic disk. The superwind stripped fragments of gas off the walls of the cavity, stretched them into long filaments, and heated them. The full extent of the superwind shows up as a fainter conical cloud of X-ray emission surrounding the filaments.
A superwind, such as the one in NGC 3079 originates in the center of the galaxy, either from activity generated by a central supermassive black hole, or by a burst of supernova activity. Superwinds are thought to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies by regulating the formation of new stars, and by dispersing heavy elements to the outer parts of the galaxy and beyond. These latest Chandra data indicate that astronomers may be seriously underestimating the mass lost in superwinds and therefore their influence within and around the host galaxy.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/ngc3079/
Image credit: NASA/CXC/STScI/U.North Carolina/G.Cecil
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
Galaxy NGC 7742 in the constellation Pegasus is by no means a run-of-the-mill spiral galaxy, as revealed in this Hubble image. Instead, the galaxy contains a bright, yellow core surrounded by concentric rings of immense, blue star clusters. When examined with a spectroscope, the core of NGC 7742 is shown to contain strong emission lines, the indication of high-energy physical processes at work there. In fact, with its particular type of active galactic nucleus, NGC 7742 is classified as a Seyfert 2 active galaxy, one that is probably powered by a black hole residing in its core.
The galaxy’s brightest stellar ring is about 3,000 light-years from the core. Tightly wound spiral arms are also faintly visible. Surrounding the inner ring is a wispy band of material, which is probably the remains of a once very active stellar breeding ground.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/696/
Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)
Messier 13 Observation - I managed to snag about six minutes of data on M13, globular cluster in the constellation Hercules, before the clouds rolled in. This was more a processing attempt to see what the limiting magnitude was in the image. I did manage to catch NGC 6207, this is a small spiral galaxy about one degree away from M13 and is listed at magnitude 12.1. The galaxy is actually 1200 times farther away that M13. Another object I was surprised to find with a six minute exposure was the galaxy PGC 2085077 (also listed as IC 4617). It only shows up as a small dot on my image, it is listed at magnitude 15.2. That places the limiting magnitude on this image at right around 15.2 (perhaps a bit lower with more research).
PHOTO DETAILS: photographed on May 2, 2014 and includes 4 x 90 second exposures. A Canon T4i and Canon EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens at ISO 800 were used. The camera was mounted on a ZEQ25GT mount from iOptron. Photo's were stacked in DSS, stretched in ImagesPlus and final editing done in Corel PaintshopPro X6 and X5. Image was taken from 40.8978786 N,75.8921584 W.
Rings of brilliant blue stars encircle the bright, active core of this spiral galaxy named Markarian 817. Viewed nearly face-on, the galaxy shows intense star-forming regions and dark bands of interstellar dust along its spiral arms.
Observations by Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph have shown that the galaxy contains a huge disk of matter encircling a supermassive black hole 40 million times more massive than our Sun. The disk is driving material out of the galaxy through powerful winds produced by streams of charged particles moving as high as 9 million miles an hour. Some of the outflow is raining back onto the galaxy. The rest is driven into intergalactic space.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/2611/news_release/2009-25
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Edited NOIRLab image of the (strange-looking) galaxy NGC 474.
Original caption: Elliptical galaxies are generally characterized by their relatively smooth appearance when compared with spiral galaxies (one of which is to the left), which have more flocculent structures interwoven with dust lanes and spiral arms. NGC 474 is at a distance of about 100 million light-years in the constellation of Pisces. This image shows unusual structures around NGC 474 characterized as tidal tails and shell-like structures made up of hundreds of millions of stars. These features are due to recent mergers (within the last billion years) or close interactions with smaller infalling dwarf galaxies. This image is an excerpt from the Dark Energy Survey, which has released a massive, public collection of astronomical data and calibrated images from six years of work. The Dark Energy Survey is a global collaboration that includes the Department of Energy's (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and NSF NOIRLab. The image was taken with the Dark Energy Camera, fabricated by DOE, on the VÃ-ctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope. The quality of the survey can be appreciated by diving into the zoomable version of this wider excerpt showing a background tapestry of thousands of distant galaxies.Â
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the smooth-looking barred spiral galaxy NGC 3895. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Far away in the Ursa Major constellation is a swirling galaxy that would not look out of place on a coffee made by a starry-eyed barista. NGC 3895 is a barred spiral galaxy that was first spotted by William Herschel in 1790 and was later observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble's orbit high above the Earth's distorting atmosphere allows astronomers to make the very high resolution observations that are essential to opening new windows on planets, stars and galaxies — such as this beautiful view of NGC 3895. The telescope is positioned approximately 570 km above the ground, where it whirls around Earth at 28 000 kilometres per hour and takes 96 minutes to complete one orbit.
The Pinwheel galaxy is larger than our own milky way galaxy by about 70%. It lies 21 million light years away in Ursa Major
Technical details:
This is the first attempt in a long while with my AT8RC. Given the quite short exposure time, I'm somewhat pleased with the result.
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 8 Ritchey-Chertien
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: Astro-Tech 65mm Quadruplet
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-GCalibration and processing in PixInsight.
Synthetic luminance from all frames
LRGB:
L: 11x3min (2x2)
RGB: 6x3min each (3x3)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy (seen edge-on) NGC 3432 with lots of red nebulae along the edge. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Believe it or not, this long, luminous streak, speckled with bright blisters and pockets of material, is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way. But how could that be? It turns out that we see this galaxy, named NGC 3432, orientated directly edge-on to us from our vantage point here on Earth. The galaxy’s spiral arms and bright core are hidden, and we instead see the thin strip of its very outer reaches. Dark bands of cosmic dust, patches of varying brightness, and pink regions of star formation help with making out the true shape of NGC 3432 — but it’s still somewhat of a challenge! Because observatories such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have seen spiral galaxies at every kind of orientation, astronomers can tell when we happen to have caught one from the side. The galaxy is located in the constellation of Leo Minor (The Lesser Lion). Other telescopes that have had NGC 3432 in their sights include those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
This spectacular edge-on galaxy, called ESO 243-49, is home to an intermediate-mass black hole that may have been stolen from a cannibalized dwarf galaxy. The black hole, with an estimated mass of 50 million Suns, lies above the galactic plane. This is an unlikely place for such a massive back hole to exist, unless it belonged to a small galaxy that was gravitationally torn apart by ESO 243-49.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1203b/
Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Farrell (University of Sydney, Australia; and University of Leicester, UK)
This spectacular image taken with the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows the unusual barred spiral galaxy NGC 4921 glowing against the backdrop of more distant galaxies.
NGC 4921 is one of the brighter members of the Coma Cluster of galaxies, located in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is about 320 million light-years distant. While the galaxy has a nucleus and an inner bar structure that is surrounded by a distinct ring of dust and young blue stars, the outer parts of the galaxy do not evidence distinct spiral arms, or star-forming regions.
Astronomers have identified that NGC 4921 is both low in hydrogen and that the distribution of this usually abundant gas within the galaxy is not uniform. It is thought that this is due to interaction with the intergalactic medium, which is stripping off the gas.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0901a/
Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
The NGC 4631 Group, a poorly defined group of galaxies, about 25 million light-years from Earth in the Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici constellations. The NGC 4631 Group is part of the Virgo Supercluster. The brightest member of this group is NGC 4631 (also known as the Whale Galaxy or Caldwell 32) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname. Because this nearby galaxy is seen edge-on from Earth, professional astronomers observe this galaxy to better understand the gas and stars located outside the plane of the galaxy. Just above it is NGC 4627, a dwarf elliptical galaxy. Lower down in the image is an apparent merger of two galaxies, NGC 4656 and NGC 4657 (together they are also known as the Hockey Stick Galaxies or the Crowbar Galaxy). This combination is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici (like the other galaxies in this image).
This image is comprised of data from two separate sessions three years apart. The data from 2018 was good enough and closely framed enough for the more recent data to be added to it giving an exposure time of just under three and a half hours.
20/04/2018
031 x 180-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
054 x dark frames
050 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
10-11/05/2021
022 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
035 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 3 hours and 23 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Optolong L-Pro filter
Spiral galaxy M96 as seen by the ESO's Very Large Telescope.
Blog post with more info: blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/24/coinci...
Original" www.eso.org/public/images/potw1143a/
Credit: ESO/Oleg Maliy
This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows NGC 5806, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Also visible in this image is the afterglow of a supernova explosion called SN 2004dg. The fading light from this outburst, caused by a giant star exploding at the end of its life, can be seen as a faint, yellowish dot near the bottom of the galaxy.
High-resolution images of NGC 5806 predating SN 2004dg were present in the Hubble data archive, so a rare and important before-and-after image comparison was possible. While the supernova’s progenitor could not be positively identified, it is suspected to be a relatively low-mass, low-luminosity red supergiant.
Aside from the supernova, NGC 5806 is a relatively unremarkable galaxy. The galaxy’s bulge (the densest part in the center of the spiral arms) is a so-called disk-type bulge, in which the spiral structure extends to the center of the galaxy.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1235a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Edited National Science Foundation/Gemini Telescope image of NGC5394/5395, two colliding galaxies.
Image source: www.gemini.edu/node/21276
Original caption: “Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control… Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” — Albert Einstein
Galaxies lead a graceful existence on cosmic timescales. Over millions of years, they can engage in elaborate dances that produce some of Nature’s most exquisite and striking grand designs. Few are as captivating as the galactic duo known as NGC 5394/5, sometimes nicknamed the Heron Galaxy. This image, obtained by the Gemini Observatory of NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, captures a snapshot of this compelling interacting pair.
The existence of our Universe is dependent upon interactions — from the tiniest subatomic particles to the largest clusters of galaxies. At galactic scales, interactions can take millions of years to unfold, a process seen in this image of two galaxies released today by the Gemini Observatory. The new image captures the slow and intimate dance of a pair of galaxies some 160 million light-years distant and reveals the sparkle of subsequent star formation fueled by the pair’s interactions.
The two galaxies, astronomers have concluded, have already “collided” at least once. However, galactic collisions can be a lengthy process of successive gravitational encounters, which over time can morph the galaxies into exotic, yet unrecognizable forms. These galaxies, as in all galactic collisions, are engaged in a ghostly dance as the distances between the stars in each galaxy preclude actual stellar collisions and their overall shapes are deformed only by each galaxy’s gravity.
One byproduct of the turbulence caused by the interaction is the coalescence of hydrogen gas into regions of star formation. In this image, these stellar nurseries are revealed in the form of the reddish clumps scattered in a ring-like fashion in the larger galaxy (and a few in the smaller galaxy). Also visible is a dusty ring that is seen in silhouette against the backdrop of the larger galaxy. A similar ring structure is seen in this previous image from the Gemini Observatory, likely the result of another interacting galactic pair.
A well-known target for amateur astronomers, the light from NGC 5394/5 first piqued humanity’s interest when it was observed by William Herschel in 1787. Herschel used his giant 20-foot-long telescope to discover the two galaxies in the same year that he discovered two moons of Uranus. Many stargazers today imagine the two galaxies as a Heron. In this interpretation, the larger galaxy is the bird’s body and the smaller one is its head — with its beak preying upon a fish-like background galaxy!
NGC 5394[1] and NGC 5395, also known collectively known as Arp 84 or the Heron Galaxy, are interacting spiral galaxies 160 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Canes Venatici. The larger galaxy, NGC 5395 (on the left), is 140,000 light-years across and the smaller one, NGC 5394, is 90,000 light-years across.
Notes
[1] NGC stands for the New General Catalog of astronomical objects.
More Information
NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, CONICYT–Chile, MCTI–Brazil, MCTIP–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST, a facility that will be jointly operated by NSF and DOE). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai’i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local Communities in Chile, respectively.
Contact
Peter Michaud
Public Information Officer
NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory
Tel: +1 808-974-2510
Cell: +1 808-936-6643
Email: pmichaud@gemini.edu
Spiral barred galaxy as per HST. Created via Gimp...2 hours! I'm still not happy with it...but tired.
How I made it: A lot of brushwork in GIMP, the galaxy itself took 1 3/4hr, I drew the spiral shape and brushed out the details. Added some noise to get the texture right. I like the galaxy itself.The background starfield sucks though...
Description: This is my image of M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici based on 21.75 hours of total exposure time. The ZWO Duo-Band light pollution filter used by me passes light at H-alpha and O(III) wavelengths at bandwidths of 15nm and 35nm, respectively. Achieving a good color balance proved to be one of my main challenges. To that end, I applied small doses of Curves Transformation in a series of steps checking for a good balance at each stage. I also used the same principle when applying the Local Histogram Transformation as well as the Histogram Transformation. This progressive approach helped me to build confidence in developing color in my image.
Date / Location: 24-25, 29-30 April and 2, 4-5 May 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: ZWO ASI 30mm f/4
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 120mm-mini
Light Pollution Filter: ZWO Duo-Band Light Pollution Filter
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 261x300s subs (= 21.75 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients) > Dynamic Background Extractor (division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: Histogram Transformation (two consecutive applications) > Local Histogram Equalization (two consecutive applications) > Curves Transformation (nine consecutive applications) > SCNR Noise Reduction > Histogram Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction.
This is a close-up of the near arm of the Milky Way galaxy. As you can see, there's a lot of stars up there! There's also a lot of dust, which causes the dark dust lanes seen above. This dust makes up a significant portion of the galaxy's total mass.
M106 is a spiral galaxy 24 million light years away in the consteallation Canes Venatici. It's suspected to have a supermassive black hole at its center which makes the galaxy bright in X-rays.
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 8 Ritchey-Chretien
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: Astro-Tech 65mm Quadruplet
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Calibrated in Equinox Image and processed in PixInsight.
L - 60min : 12x5min (1x1)
RGB - each 30min: 6x5min (2x2)
A close cropping of spiral galaxy M101 shows an array of stunning details have never been seen before in this galaxy. Due to the high sensitivity and fine resolution of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), individual dust lanes in the spiral arms are as clearly visible as rivers flowing through a mountain range here on Earth taken from an aerial photo. Bright, hot regions that are areas of active star formation also dot the spiral arms, akin to ground photos of the bright lights of major cities when photographed at night.
Several bright stars appear in this small section of M101 (also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy). They are in our own galaxy, superimposed in the line of sight and appear much brighter than the stars within M101 because they are so much closer. So too, a background spiral galaxy, millions of light-years behind M101, appears between two spiral arms.
06-10
M51 The Whirlpool Spiral Galaxy also known as NGC-5194,
Two colliding Galaxies in the Constellation of Canes Venatici,
a few degrees from the end star in handle of the Big Dipper.
The smaller companion that M51 is colliding with is called NGC-5195.
M51 sits at 23 Million Light Years away.
I processed it to show the faint tidal tail structure details!
I can see several dust lane structures running through the tidal tail as well as faint background galaxies behind the tidal tail!
This is a 17.5 hour exposure of M51, over 7 seperate nights in early 2010, 2011.
taken with my Homemade 16" F4.5 Newtonian Scope,
Using a QHY8 Cooled CCD camera and a modified Canon Rebel Xsi DSLR camera, data from both cameras were used, and both employed a celestron coma corrector and Astronomiks CLS filter employed.
Calibrated Bias, Darks, Flats, Darks for flats, in Deep Sky Stacker via Sigma Reject, both camera data sets were combined and resized to match in Maxim DL, initially color balanced in Nebulosity, Gradient XT was used to remove Light pollution Gradients, Luminance Layered and final color balance in Adobe.
Luminence Data (QHY8) 4 hours(240 minutes)
Hydrogen Alpha Data (QHY8) 3.5 hours(210 minutes)
RGB Data = modified Baader Canon Rebel Xsi 10 hours(600 minutes)
210 light sub frames captured, Total 17.5 hours of exposure.
This is my best and most detailed image of M51 to date, and now my longest exposure on a single object.
definitely a lot of work, but I now feel it was worth all the processing time, which actually exceeded the 17.5 hours of imaging time!
Best Regards,
John Chumack