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Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. It is estimated that M74 hosts about 100 billion stars.
(C) Wikipedia
Taken over 20 nights in November and December 2024. Poor conditions and limited availability resulted in loosing half the original data.
Many thanks for looking.
Full details available at astrob.in/a05cyp/0/
Nome: Galáxia de Andrômeda, Messier 31, NGC 224
Tipo: Galáxia espiral
Distância: ~2.511.404 anos-luz [1]
Magnitude (filtro V): 3,44 [2]
Constelação: Andrômeda
Imagine se olhássemos para o céu noturno e pudéssemos contemplar um objeto, uma galáxia, com um tamanho aparente seis vezes maior que a lua cheia? Sim, esse objeto existe, é a galáxia de Andrômeda. A galáxia de Andrômeda, também catalogada como Messier 31, pode ser vista a olho nu em um céu com moderada poluição luminosa. Infelizmente, o que conseguimos enxergar com visão desarmada, ou seja sem instrumento, é apenas o seu núcleo. Nossos olhos não tem capacidade de captar a tênue luz emanada de toda a extensão desta galáxia. Mesmo que enxerguemos somente seu núcleo a olho nu, estamos recebendo em nossos olhos naquele momento, os fótons, a luz que saiu desta galáxia há 2.500.000 anos atrás. Quando esta luz saiu de lá nem mesmo a raça humana existia sobre a face da Terra.
A Galáxia de Andrômeda, também chamada de Nebulosa Andrômeda, (catalogada como NGC 224 e M31) é uma grande galáxia espiral. É a maior galáxia mais próxima de nós, localizada na constelação de Andrômeda. É uma das poucas galáxias que pode ser vista a olho nu apresentando-se como um pequeno chumaço de algodão. Está localizada a cerca de 2,5 milhões de anos-luz de distância da Terra, possui um diâmetro de aproximadamente 200.000 anos-luz e compartilha várias características similares com a nossa galáxia, a Via-Láctea. [3]
Os primeiros registros deste objeto aparecem por volta do ano de 965 no Livro das Estrelas Fixas do astrônomo islâmico Abd al-rahman al-Sufi e redescoberta em 1612 pouco depois da invenção do telescópio pelo astrônomo alemão Simon Marius. Durante séculos os astrônomos consideravam a Galáxia de Andrômeda como um componente local da Via-Láctea, isto é, como uma nebulosa espiral muito semelhante a outras massas brilhantes de gás dentro do sistema galáctico local (daí o equívoco nome de Nebulosa de Andrômeda). Somente no ano de 1920 é que o astrônomo americano Edwin Powell Hubble determinou conclusivamente que Andrômeda era de fato uma galáxia separada além da Via-Láctea.[3]
Fontes:
[1] Cosmicflows-3 - simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-ref?bibcode=2016AJ....152....
[2] The GALEX ultraviolet atlas of nearby galaxies - simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-ref?bibcode=2007ApJS..173....
[3] www.britannica.com/place/Andromeda-Galaxy
Registrei esta imagem durante duas noites, em 15 e 16 de julho de 2018 na zona rural Riacho do Mato, município de São Romão, Minas Gerais - Brasil. Foi utilizada uma câmera Canon DSLR com lente 150mm da Sigma em abertura F4. É uma imagem com exposição total de 2 horas e 55 minutos. Veja mais detalhes técnicos abaixo.
Dados técnicos:
ISO 800, abertura F4, 2 horas e 55 minutos de exposição (35 subs de 5 minutos) calibrados apenas com darks e bias.
Escala de Bortle no local: entre 1 e 2
Equipamentos:
- Montagem equatorial SmartEQ Pro+ da iOptron
- Câmera Canon DSLR T1i 500D modificada com filtro Astrodon
- Lente Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG APO HSM Macro fechada em F4
- Auto guiagem com câmera Orion StarShoot e telescópio de guiagem 50mm Orion
Softwares
- Captura: APT - Astro Photography Tool 3.50
- Guiagem: PHD2
- Controle: iOptron Commander e SkyTechX
- Processamento: PixInsight 1.8 e Adobe Photoshop CS5
Into The Interstellar Medium
Planet Impero
Interplanetary Travel
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Aries. Despite its tranquil appearance, NGC 976 has played host to one of the most violent astronomical phenomena known – a supernova explosion. These cataclysmically violent events take place at the end of the lives of massive stars and can outshine entire galaxies for a short period. While supernovae mark the deaths of massive stars, they are also responsible for the creation of heavy elements that are incorporated into later generations of stars and planets.
Supernovae are also a useful aid for astronomers who measure the distances to faraway galaxies. The amount of energy thrown out into space by some types of supernova explosions is very uniform, allowing astronomers to estimate their distances from how bright they appear to be when viewed from Earth. This image – which was created using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 – comes from a large collection of Hubble observations of nearby galaxies which host supernovae as well as a pulsating class of stars known as Cepheid variables. Both Cepheids and supernovae are used to measure astronomical distances, and galaxies containing both objects provide useful natural laboratories where the two methods can be calibrated against one another.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-tr...
Meet NGC 5728, a spiral galaxy around 130 million light-years from Earth. This image was acquired using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is extremely sensitive to visible and infrared light. Therefore, it beautifully captures the regions of NGC 5728 that are emitting light at those wavelengths. However, there are many other types of light that galaxies such as NGC 5728 emit, which WFC3 can’t see.
In this image, NCG 5728 appears to be an elegant, luminous, barred spiral galaxy. What this image doesn’t show, is that NGC 5728 is also a monumentally energetic type of galaxy, known as a Seyfert galaxy. Powered by their active cores, Seyfert galaxies are an extremely energetic class of galaxies known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). There are many different types of AGNs, but Seyfert galaxies are distinguished from other galaxies with AGNs because the galaxy itself is clearly seen. Other AGNs, such as quasars, emit so much radiation that it is almost impossible to observe the galaxy that houses them. As this image shows, NGC 5728 is clearly observable, and at visible and infrared wavelengths it looks quite normal. It is fascinating to know that the galaxy’s center is emitting vast amounts of light in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that WFC3 just isn’t sensitive to! Just to complicate things, the AGN at NGC 5728’s core might actually be emitting some visible and infrared light – but it may be blocked by the dust surrounding the galaxy’s core.
Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble, A. Riess et al., J. Greene
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-views-a-ga...
So Far Out to Home
Interplanetary Travel
Youtube: 4K | Plutonia - Interplanetary Travel (Tunisia 🇹🇳)
"4K" Road Trip in Tunisia - Visiting Tunisia "2019"
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
M31 is a spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It lies at a distance of about 2.5 million light years from Earth.
Optics: Takahashi FSQ-106N (530mm)
Camera: SBIG STF-8300M
Filters: Astrodon RGB (gen 2)
Mount: Astro-Physics 900GTO
Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop
Exposure: Red 5 hours (30 x 10 minutes), Green 3.2 hours (19 x 10 minutes), Blue 5.5 hours (33 x 10 minutes)
La galassia a spirale M 74 si trova nella costellazione dei Pesci: ha una magnitudine apparente di 9.4, risultando quindi uno degli oggetti più deboli del catalogo di Messier.
La sua distanza dalla nostra galassia (la Via Lattea) è di 30 milioni di anni luce per una estensione reale è di 92000 anni luce (poco più piccola della Via Lattea).
Per via della particolare angolazione con cui si mostra, è possibile seguire i bracci a spirale dal centro fino alle deboli regioni esterne. Nei bracci a spirale sono visibili diverse regioni HII (regioni di formazione stellare): la più grande ha un diametro di 600 anni luce.
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M74 is a spiral galaxy in Pisces constellation, with apparent magnitude 9.4.
Its distance fom Milky Way is 30 million light years, with a real extension of 92000 light years (a bit smaller than Milky Way). Due to its face-on view it is possible follow the spiral arms from the centre to the dim outer regions. Several HII regions are visible in the arms: the largest one has a diameter of 600 light years.
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Technical data
Data obtained from August to November 2021 and September 2025 from Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy)
RC12 GSO Truss (diameter 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm)
Mount GM2000 HPSII
CCD Moravian G3-16200 (2021) and CMOS ASI 2600MM PRO (2025)
Filters Astrodon Gen2 E-Serie LRGB + Ha 5nm
Exposures and sensor temperature with Moravian 16200:
L 10x600" bin2 -20C + 19x600" bin2 -25C
R 10x600" bin2 -20C + 5x600" bin2 -25C
G 10x600" bin2 -20C + 4x600" bin2 -25C
B 10x600" bin2 -20C + 4x600" bin2 -25C
Exposure and sensor temperature with ASI 2600 MM PRO:
L 29x300" bin3 -15C gain 100
Ha 11x600" bin3 -15C gain 100
Total exposure time 16h15'
Guide with OAG Moravian and Moravian camera G1-0301
Guide with ZWO OAG-L and ASI 174MM
Acquisition sw : Voyager, PHD2
Processing sw: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator
Messier 108 (M108), nicknamed the Surfboard Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy lies at an approximate distance of 45.9 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.7.
Tech Specs: This image is composed of 27 x 60 second images at ISO 3,200 with 5 x 60 second darks and 5 x 1/4000 second bias frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Guided using a Canon 400mm lens and ZWO ASI290MC camera. Imaging was done on February 26, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
Messier 88 is a classic spiral galaxy. It measures 6.9 x 3.7 arcminutes. A supernova was detected there in 1999.
26 x 10 minute subs. Modified Canon 80D at ISO400 on an Equinox 120ED doublet refractor.
See previous wide field for more details.
Keep Watching The Stars
Planet Impero
Interplanetary Travel
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
The Andromeda Galaxy, this is my first light on it using the Sky-Watcher APO. The Andromeda Galaxy is also designated Messier 31 (M31) and is the nearest major galaxy to out Milky Way, which it happens to be on a collision course with! Also pictured are the elliptical galaxies Messier 110 (M110) to the upper left of Andromeda and Messier 32 (M32) the large white dot just to the right of the center of Andromeda.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, Canon 6D stock camera, ISO 3200, 75 x 60 second exposures with dark/bias frames, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Image date: October 30, 2018. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Here is a view of the Sunflower Galaxy, Messier 63 (M63) found in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is a spiral galaxy surrounded by many short spiral arm segments. It is also a member of a group of galaxies referred to as the M51 Group. The Sunflower Galaxy lies roughly 37 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 9.3.
Tech Specs: This image is composed of 42 x 60 second images at ISO 3,200 with 5 x 60 second darks and 5 x 1/4000 second bias frames using a using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount (ASI290MC and Canon 400mm lens for guiding). Imaging was done on March 23, 2017 from Weatherly, Pennsylvania.
This is my interpretation of the milky way. Colorfull and bright.
6D+Tokina11-16 (@16mm) 2.8, ISO 5000, 30sek.
Still-image of a timelapse
Check my profile and find my "mooving-pictures"
or here:
Yeah!
This is my first 'Explore'. Without sending it to 1000 groups (in fact ony two, before getting two invitations after Explore) and without many flickr-friends.
I revisited a bunch of previous RGB data and now added about an hour of Hα data. This galaxy really needs it. All those pink areas are regions of intense star formation, where some of the most massive stars are being born. The particularly big pink blob in the upper right is known as NGC 604. It is an emission nebula in another galaxy that is so large and bright that it gets its own designation. Think of really outstanding examples like this in our own sky -- M17 or the Eta Carina Nebula. This one has both of them beat for size and luminance. It only looks small because it is 3 million light years away.
All subframes shot with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar. RGB data taken over multiple nights with an Atik 314L+ color CCD; hydrogen-alpha data taken with an Atik 414-EX with Atik 7 nm bandpass filter. Preprocessing of images in Nebulosity; registration, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
IC 342 è una galassia a spirale nella costellazione boreale della Giraffa: ha dimensioni apparenti ragguardevoli (poco più piccola della dimensione apparente della Luna piena vista ad occhio nudo), eppure è stata scoperta solo nel 1890, come mai?
La spiegazione più plausibile è sicuramente legata alla sua debole luminosità: trovandosi in direzione del piano della nostra Galassia, la sua luce è fortemente indebolita dalle polveri della Via Lattea, responsabili anche dell'inconsueto colore marroncino/rossastro come si può vedere nell'immagine proposta (di solito galassie di questo tipo mostrano un nucleo giallino e bracci a spirale di colore azzurro).
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IC 342 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis: it has a considerable apparent size (slightly smaller than the apparent size of the full Moon seen with the naked eye), yet it was discovered only in 1890, why?
The most plausible explanation is certainly linked to its weak luminosity: being in the direction of the plane of our Galaxy, its light is strongly weakened by the dust of the Milky Way, also responsible for the unusual brownish/reddish color as can be seen in the proposed image (usually galaxies of this type show a yellowish nucleus and blue spiral arms).
Technical data
GSO RC12 Truss - Aperture 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm, f/8
Mount 10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions
Filters Astrodon Gen2 E-Serie Tru-Balance 50mm unmounted LRGB
Guiding system ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details:
L 76x300", RGB 24x300" for each channel, Ha 64x300", all in bin3 -15C gain 100
Total integration time: 17h40'
Acquisition: Voyager, PHD2
Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator
SQM-L: 21.00
Location: Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date 1/6/27/28/30 December 2024
Bodes Galaxy is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light years away. The Cigar Galaxy is thought to have at some point interacted with Bodes Galaxy, taking lots of dust and causing it to be become a starburst galaxy where stars are being born 10 times faster than the milky way. (Wikipedia)
60 300s Lights with 62 flats and 67 bias. Dithered.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - Stellarium Scope, Stellarium, Poth Hub, EQMOD, All Sky Plate Solver, PHD Guiding 2 and PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and edited in Star Tools.
Moon: - New
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Seeing: - Good
Notes: - I have got to the point where I can just set up and get going. This has taken me a long time to get to. I did take pictures for 2 nights but in the end only kept the second nights work. I may at some point come up with a successful re-process with both days data. In the end I felt 5 hours is enough for this setup although I have read somewhere that this object benefits from as much data as possible.
I think the flats on the first night and prior shots I’ve taken had too much exposure. I still think I am overexposing these as I am getting rings in my pictures. I’ll go even lower on the next object.
The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is a spiral galaxy nearly 2.5 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is the closest non-satellite galaxy of our host galaxy, the Milky Way, and is nearly twice as massive at 1.5 trillion solar masses. It is visible with the naked eye from moderately dark skies, and is about 6x2 lunar diameters in apparent size.
The Milky Way and M31 are moving towards each other at 225 km/s (504000mph) and are expected to collide in 3-4 billion years. While the odds of stellar collisions are incredibly small due to the large inter-stellar separation, the ambient hydrogen gas will be compressed. The result is a significant increase in stellar formation. For comparison, the Milky Way is estimated to produce roughly 2 stars per year, and galaxy mergers of medium to large size such as this future collision can produce 100-1000 stars per year.
Eventually, the supermassive black holes that reside in the core of our galaxies will inspiral and find each other, resulting in a massive collision. The energy radiated away during such a collision is truly incredible. The first observation of a black hole collision by LIGO determined that the two black holes, of mass 36 and 29 solar masses, radiated a total of 3 solar masses of gravitational energy. This is equivalent to the entire world's energy production expended once a nanosecond for 6 years, and expended again for each and every human on earth. Instead of 6 years though, the black hole merger expended a bulk of this energy in 0.1 seconds. Now, the estimated mass of the Milky Way's black hole is 4.3 million, the Andromeda's mass is 40 million solar masses.
Details:
Scope: TMB92SS
Camera: QSI683-wsg8
Guide Camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Mount: Mach1 GTO
L: 33x5min
RGB: 56x5min total
7.4 hrs total exposure
This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5037, in the constellation of Virgo. First documented by William Herschel in 1785, the galaxy lies about 150 million light-years away from Earth. Despite this distance, we can see the delicate structures of gas and dust within the galaxy in extraordinary detail. This detail is possible using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), whose combined exposures created this image.
WFC3 is a very versatile camera, as it can collect ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light, thereby providing a wealth of information about the objects it observes. WFC3 was installed on Hubble by astronauts in 2009, during Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). SM4 was Hubble’s final Space Shuttle servicing mission, expected to prolong Hubble’s life for at least another five years. Twelve years later, both Hubble and WFC3 remain very active and scientifically productive.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-captures-a...
This is one of the first objects I got a somewhat decent shot of back in May 2011. Here's that image: flic.kr/p/9SWw5P
I wanted a comparison to see what I've learned over the past 10 years.
The first one had no calibration frames - no darks, no flats, no bias. It was also done with a one-shot color camera (Atik 314L+), but from significantly darker skies. The current one is with a mono camera (Atik 414-EX) and Optolong RGB deep sky filters, but from my very light polluted backyard. Both are with a Celestron Edge HD 925 with 0.63x focal reducer. The first one was processed with Nebulosity and GIMP. The current one with Nebulosity for preprocessing; PixInsight for stacking, channel combination, and processing, with final touches in Photoshop. Guiding was done with a Celestron Nexstar 80mm refractor using Celestron's planetary imaging camera for the earlier one, and with a ZWO ASI120MM for the current one. The current version also uses the multi-star guiding option in PHD.
I will be getting an H-alpha filter for the filter wheel soon, so we'll see another version of this with more pop for the emission nebulae soon.
Happy 10 years of diving into this effort, spending money on equipment and software, and many hours of time learning how to use them! I hope to keep this up for many years to come.
The Milky Way Core
Having another go at re-processing the core of the Milky Way to get used to the software – since i am still very new at Astrophotography and all its intricacies, this was about 5 images (in reality needed way more) which were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) before being edited in Lightroom and being further touched up in Luminar 2018 (Image Enhancer & some minor AI Boosts)
———- Technical Specs ———–
Nikon D610 & Tamron 15 – 30mm @ 16mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 30 seconds
Instagram: Trav.Hale,
Twitter: @TravisHale,
Facebook: TravHale
500px: TravisHale,
Flickr: TravisH1984,
Google Plus:+TravHale
Web: www.travishale.com
Despite its unassuming appearance, the edge-on spiral galaxy captured in the left half of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is actually quite remarkable.
Located about one billion light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus, this striking galaxy — known as LO95 0313-192 — has a spiral shape similar to that of the Milky Way. It has a large central bulge, and arms speckled with brightly glowing gas mottled by thick lanes of dark dust. Its companion, sitting in the right of the frame, is known rather unpoetically as [LOY2001] J031549.8-190623.
Jets, outbursts of superheated gas moving at close to the speed of light, have long been associated with the cores of giant elliptical galaxies, and galaxies in the process of merging. However, in an unexpected discovery, astronomers found LO95 0313-192, even though it is a spiral galaxy, to have intense radio jets spewing out from its center. The galaxy appears to have two more regions that are also strongly emitting in the radio part of the spectrum, making it even rarer still.
The discovery of these giant jets in 2003 — not visible in this image, but indicated in this earlier Hubble composite — has been followed by the unearthing of a further three spiral galaxies containing radio-emitting jets in recent years. This growing class of unusual spirals continues to raise significant questions about how jets are produced within galaxies, and how they are thrown out into the cosmos.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; acknowledgement, Judy Schmidt
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The wondrous sight of the Milky Way arc at Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida. Big Cypress is recognized as an official Dark Sky Place by the International Dark Sky Association.
Spiral Galaxy.
More torch bothering tonight with my phisiogram set up. I love the varied results you can get doing these. You can change the light source from permanently on to strobing, you can change the colours used, you can vary the direction and angle of the spin, the length of the string and length of exposure. Every one is a surprise when it pops up on screen and each leads to ideas of other areas to explore.
I might be a while doing these so I hope you enjoy them. If not you might want to bugger off for a while :)
This one was done using some diffusing material and a pop of led panel from a height, material removed, aperture opened up, gels over lens and spin till the light source nears the middle.
Happy days.
RASA 8" + QHY128C + EQ8Pro
15 x 10 min
04-05.04.2020
Moon phase was ~82% and the level of background sky (and its noise) was high - that led to high contrast processing of the image.
This stellar whirlpool is a spiral galaxy named NCG 7329, which has been imaged by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Creating a colourful image such as this one using a telescope such as Hubble is not as straightforward as pointing and clicking a camera. Commercial cameras will typically try to collect as much light of all visible wavelengths as they can, in order to create the most vibrant images possible. In contrast, raw images collected by Hubble are always monochromatic, because astronomers typically want to capture very specific ranges of wavelengths of light at any time, in order to do the best, most accurate science possible. In order to control which wavelengths of light will be collected, Hubble’s cameras are equipped with a wide variety of filters, which only allow certain wavelengths of light to reach the cameras’ CCDs (a CCD is a camera’s light sensor — phone cameras also have CCDs!).
How are the colourful Hubble images possible given that the raw Hubble images are monochromatic? This is accomplished by combining multiple different observations of the same object, obtained using different filters. This image, for example, was processed from Hubble observations made using four different filters, each of which spans a different region of the light spectrum, from the ultraviolet to optical and infrared. Specialised image processors and artists can make informed judgements about which optical colours best correspond to each filter used. They can then colour the images taken using that filter accordingly. Finally, the images taken with different filters are stacked together, and voila! The colourful image of a distant galaxy is complete, with colours as representative of reality as possible.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.; CC BY 4.0
The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 415-19, which lies around 450 million light-years away, stretches lazily across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. While the centre of this object resembles a regular spiral galaxy, long streams of stars stretch out from the galactic core like bizarrely elongated spiral arms. These are tidal streams caused by some chance interaction in the galaxy’s past, and give ESO 415-19 a distinctly peculiar appearance.
ESO 415-19’s peculiarity made it a great target for Hubble. This observation comes from an ongoing campaign to explore the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a menagerie of some of the weirdest and most wonderful galaxies that the Universe has to offer. These galaxies range from bizarre lonesome galaxies to spectacularly interacting galaxy pairs, triplets, and even quintets. These space oddities are spread throughout the night sky, which means that Hubble can spare a moment to observe them as it moves between other observational targets.
This particular observation lies in a part of the night sky contained by the Fornax constellation. This constellation was also the site of a particularly important Hubble observation; the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Creating the Ultra Deep Field required almost a million seconds of Hubble time, and captured nearly 10,000 galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colours. Just as climate scientists can recreate the planet’s atmospheric history from ice cores, astronomers can use deep field observations to explore slices of the Universe’s history from the present all the way to when the Universe was only 800 million years old!
[Image description: A spiral galaxy. It has a bright core with patches of dark dust, and fuzzier, dimmer spiral arms in cooler colours, with spots of bright blue. Long, faint tidal streams stretch from the galaxy’s arms: one up to the top of the frame, one curving down to the bottom-left corner. In the top-right there is a smaller, orange elliptical galaxy. The background is studded with many tiny stars and galaxies.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; CC BY 4.0
I shot this image with a Canon 6D (unmodified) on the 22th of April. I stacked 35x240s exposures which resulted in roughly 2,3 Hours of total integration time.
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5 Pro
Telescope: Omegon Pro Astrograph 154/600 F4
Guide camera: Orion starshoot autoguider
Guidescope: Orion 50mm
Coma Corrector: Skywatcher aplanatic coma corrector
Edited in Pixinsight, Darktable, Gimp.
M98 M99 and M100
Located in the Virgo cluster, M98 M99 and M100 are three galaxies identified in Charles Messier's catalog of of deep-sky objects. This cluster is part of the larger Virgo Supercluster to which the Milky Way galaxy is part of.
Distances to these three objects range from 41-52 million light-years. The above image is roughly 2.7 degrees wide - about 5.5 full moons. At least 10 other NGC and IC galaxies are also visible.
Markarian's Chain is also part of the Virgo cluster.
D5500
Nikon 300mm f/4.5 ED MF @f5.6
90x30s, 3200iso
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Regim sig18 stack (darks and flats)
Processed in Affinity Photo
RG_M98-100_Sig18_AP2_c50r90q
NGC 300 - Spiral Galaxy in Sculptor
NGC 300 is a beautify spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. It is a popular target as it is one of the closest and most prominent spiral galaxies in the southern skies and bright enough to view easily through binoculars. With an apparent magnitude of 9.0, and an apparent size of 21’.9 X 15’.5 arcmin, it presents a reasonable size for imaging. To give some perspective or scale of this object, our moon is around 31’ arcmin across.
NGC 300 is approximately 6 million light-years away. It is the brightest of the five main spirals in the direction of the Sculptor Group. It is likely to be gravitationally bound to NGC 55 located in Sculptor, and they are slowly spinning around and toward each other, in the early stages of a lengthy merging process.
This is a Lum RGB image blended with Ha to highlight the star-forming areas present in the galaxy. I love the number of small galaxies scattered throughout the field.
I found this to be a difficult galaxy to process. Perhaps the most difficult component was the colours as they seem very subtle in the initial combination of the data. Another variable unexpected variable I had to deal with was replacing the main imaging camera with another. I was surprised at how different the resulting data streams were from each camera.
Calibrating the data, and the data rejection process where the extraneous signal is removed in each sub (bad columns, hot pixels, cosmic rays, vignetting) was a little challenging as I did not want to remove good data from the final compilation inadvertently.
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
40 X 900 Bin 1X1 Lum
14 X 450 Bin 2X2 Red
21 X 450 Bin 2X2 Green
13 X 450 Bin 2X2 Blue
50 X 900 Bin 1X1 Ha
Total Hours: 28.5
Location
Australia, Central Victoria
This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5037, which is found in the constellation of Virgo and was first documented by William Herschel in 1785. It lies about 150 million light-years away from Earth, and yet it is possible to see the delicate structures of gas and dust within the galaxy in extraordinary detail. This was made possible by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which was used to collect the exposures that were combined to create this image.
WFC3 is a very versatile camera, as it can collect ultraviolet, visible and infrared light, thereby providing a wealth of information about the objects that it observes. WFC3 was installed on Hubble by astronauts in 2009, during servicing mission 4, which was Hubble’s fifth and final servicing mission. Servicing mission 4 was intended to prolong Hubble’s life for another five years. 12 years later, both Hubble and WFC3 remain in active use!
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
NGC 2336 è una galassia a spirale barrata nella costellazione della Giraffa. Si trova a circa 100 milioni di anni luce dalla Terra: considerando le sue dimensioni apparenti di 7.1’ x 3.9’ (la Luna ha un diametro apparente di 30’), questo significa che ha una diametro reale di circa 200.000 anni luce, il doppio della nostra galassia (la Via Lattea).
NGC 2336 venne scoperta solo nel 1876.
(testo adattato da Wikipedia)
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NGC 2336 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is located at a distance of about 100 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions of 7.1’x3.9’, means that NGC 2336 is about 200,000 light years across, the double of our galaxy Milky Way.
It was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1876.
(text adapted from Wikipedia)
Technical data
Image taken on January 18/22 2020 from Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy)
RC12 GSO Truss (diameter 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm)
Mount GM2000 HPSII
CCD Moravian G3-16200 with filters Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Serie LRGB
Exposure: L 31*600”, R 16x300”, G 16x300", B 16x300”, all in bin2 with sensor temperature -30C
Total exposure 9.2h
Guide with OAG Moravian and guide camera Moravian G1-0301
Imaging session managed by Voyager sw
Post processing with Pixinsight 1.8 e Photoshop
This image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 7678 – a galaxy with one particularly prominent arm, located approximately 164 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse). With a diameter of around 115,000 light-years, this bright spiral galaxy is a similar size to our own galaxy (the Milky Way) and was discovered in 1784 by the German-British astronomer William Herschel.
The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a catalog which was produced in 1966 by the American astronomer Halton Arp. NGC 7678 is among the 338 galaxies presented in this catalog, which organizes peculiar galaxies according to their unusual features. Cataloged here as Arp 28, this galaxy is listed together with six others in the group “spiral galaxies with one heavy arm.”
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
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The luminous heart of the galaxy M61 dominates this image, framed by its winding spiral arms threaded with dark tendrils of dust. As well as the usual bright bands of stars, the spiral arms of M61 are studded with ruby-red patches of light. Tell-tale signs of recent star formation, these glowing regions lead to M61’s classification as a starburst galaxy.
Though the gleaming spiral of this galaxy makes for a spectacular sight, one of the most interesting features of M61 lurks unseen at the center of this image. The heart of the galaxy shows widespread pockets of star formation, and hosts a supermassive black hole more than five million times as massive as the Sun.
M61 appears almost face-on, making it a popular subject for astronomical images, even though the galaxy lies more than 52 million light-years from Earth. This particular astronomical image incorporates data from not only Hubble, but also the FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph 2 camera at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, together revealing M61 in unprecedented detail. This striking image is one of many examples of telescope teamwork – astronomers frequently combine data from ground-based and space-based telescopes to learn more about the universe.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
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The galaxy NGC 6946 is nothing short of spectacular. In the last century alone, NGC 6946 has experienced 10 observed supernovae, earning its nickname as the Fireworks Galaxy. In comparison, our Milky Way averages just 1-2 supernova events per century. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the stars, spiral arms, and various stellar environments of NGC 6946 in phenomenal detail.
We are able to marvel at NGC 6946 as it is a face-on galaxy, which means that we see the galaxy “facing” us, rather than seeing it from the side (known as edge-on). The Fireworks Galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as a starburst galaxy. The former means the structure of NGC 6946 sits between a full spiral and a barred spiral galaxy, with only a slight bar in its centre, and the latter means it has an exceptionally high rate of star formation.
The galaxy resides 25.2 million light-years away, along the border of the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus (The Swan).
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Leroy, K. S. Long; CC BY 4.0
The lonely spiral galaxy UGC 9391 is shown in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. This spiral galaxy resides 130 million light years from Earth in the constellation Draco near the North celestial pole. The star-studded spiral arms stand in splendid isolation against a backdrop of distant galaxies, which are only visible as indistinct swirls or smudges thanks to their vast distances from Earth. The image also features some much brighter foreground stars from closer to home. These bright nearby stars are ringed with diffraction spikes — prominent spikes caused by light interacting with the inner workings of Hubble’s complicated optics. Hubble’s most striking astronomical images often include these three different layers — a field of distant galaxies, the object that Hubble is observing, and a handful of bright interloping stars from the Milky Way.
This image is from a set of observations in which astronomers used Hubble to construct the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” — a set of connected measurements allowing the distances to the furthest astronomical objects to be determined. Astronomical distances are only directly measurable for relatively nearby objects — closer than 3000 light years or so. For distances beyond this, astronomers rely on a set of measured correlations calibrated against nearby objects. UGC 9391 helped astronomers improve their distance estimates by providing a natural laboratory to compare two measuring techniques — supernova explosions and Cepheid variables. Improving the precision of distance measurements helps astronomers quantify how quickly the Universe is expanding — one of Hubble’s key science goals.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.; CC BY 4.0
Without Cinnamon! -
It’s a Tempest in a Coffee Cup
Or,
A Spiral Galaxy with a Black Hole at the Center...
IMG_8843
This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3254, observed using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFC3 has the capacity to observe ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. The image is a composite of observations taken in the visible and infrared. NGC 3254 looks like a typical spiral galaxy, viewed side-on. However, NGC 3254 has a fascinating secret hiding in plain sight – it is a Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies have extraordinarily active cores (called an active galactic nucleus) that release as much energy as the rest of the galaxy put together.
Seyfert galaxies are not rare – about 10% of all galaxies may be Seyfert galaxies. They belong to the class of “active galaxies” – galaxies that have supermassive black holes at their centers accreting material, which releases vast amounts of radiation. The active cores of Seyfert galaxies such as NGC 3254 are brightest when observed in light outside the visible spectrum. At other wavelengths, this image would look very different, with the galaxy’s core shining extremely bright.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the galaxy NGC 6984, an elegant spiral galaxy in the constellation Indus roughly 200 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy is a familiar sight for Hubble, having already been captured in 2013. The sweeping spiral arms are threaded through with a delicate tracery of dark lanes of gas and dust, and studded with bright stars and luminous star-forming regions.
These new observations were made following an extremely rare astronomical event — a double supernova in NGC 6984. Supernovae are unimaginably violent explosions on a truly vast scale, precipitated by the deaths of massive stars. These events are powerful but rare and fleeting — a single supernova can outshine its host galaxy for a brief time. The discovery of two supernovae at virtually the same time and location (in astronomical terms) prompted speculation from astronomers that the two supernovae may somehow be physically linked. Using optical and ultraviolet observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, astronomers sought to get a better look at the site of the two supernovae, hopefully allowing them to discover if the two supernova explosions were indeed linked. Their findings could give astronomers important clues into the lives of binary stars.
As well as helping to unravel an astronomical mystery, these new observations added more data to the 2013 observations, and allowed this striking new image to be created. The observations — each of which covers only a narrow range of wavelengths — add new details and a greater range of colours to the image.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Milisavljevic; CC BY 4.0
I was in cyprus last week for a few days to catch up with family and had the opportunity to go out at night to do a bit of astrophotography. This was my first attempt at photographing Andromeda Galaxy - our nearest galactic neighbour. I still got a lot to learn in this area, but for now I am happy with the results!
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), located 210,000 light-years away, is one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space. At the center of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster.
A torrent of radiation from the cluster's hot stars eats into denser areas creating a fantasy sculpture of dust and gas. The dark, intricately beaded edge of the ridge, seen in silhouette by Hubble, is particularly dramatic. It contains several small dust globules that point back towards the central cluster, like windsocks caught in a gale.
Energetic outflows and radiation from hot young stars are eroding the dense outer portions of the star-forming region, formally known as N66, exposing new stellar nurseries. The diffuse fringes of the nebula prevent the energetic outflows from streaming directly away from the cluster, leaving instead a trail of filaments marking the swirling path of the outflows.
The NGC 346 cluster at the center of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope contains dozens of hot, blue, high-mass stars, more than half of the known high-mass stars in the entire SMC galaxy. A myriad of smaller, compact clusters is also visible throughout the region.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)
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Low tide breakers on Lynn's long shallow beach... This beach is on Boston's North Shore in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA, North America, Planet Earth, Star Sol, One Arm of Milky Way Spiral Galaxy, (Andromeda Galactic Cluster - I think...;))
Camera pointed west toward Boston, That's where the sun sets.
Cropped, and enhanced to be as I remember it.
IMG_1376 - Version 2
The spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 3318 are lazily draped across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies in the constellation Vela and is roughly 115 light-years away from Earth. Vela was originally part of a far larger constellation, known as Argo Navis after the fabled ship Argo from Greek mythology, but this unwieldy constellation proved to be impractically large. Argo Navis was split into three separate parts called Carnina, Puppis, and Vela — each named after part of the Argo. As befits a galaxy in a nautically inspired constellation, the outer edges of NGC 3318 almost resemble a ship’s sails billowing in a gentle breeze.
Despite its placid appearance, NGC 3318 has played host to a spectacularly violent astronomical phenomenon, a titanic supernova first detected by an amateur astronomer in 2000. Thanks to NGC 3318’s distance from Earth, the original supernova must have taken place in or around 1885. Coincidentally, this was the year in which the only supernova ever to be detected in our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda was witnessed by 19th-century astronomers.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, R. J. Foley; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: R. Colombari
This image from Ursa Major shows two Messier objects in the same field. They are 48 arcminutes apart. Many of the small background "stars" here are actually distant galaxies.
The Owl planetary nebula is about 3.7 arcminutes across in our sky but is actually 0.91 light years in diameter. It lies about 2600 light years distant. The central star has shed its outer layers which glow either red (hydrogen) or green-blue (oxygen) lit by the light of the remnant white dwarf star. Eventually, the star will cool and the gas will expand until the nebula fades away.
Barred spiral galaxy M108 is about 45 million light years away and is almost edge on from our perspective. It’s 8.7 x 2.2 arcminutes diameter in our sky. It lacks a prominent core or bulge but has numerous dust lanes. A Type II supernovae was observed here in 1969. It’s possible to see brownish dust lanes, pink hydrogen alpha zones and two bright blue stellar “associations” of young stars at this magnification.
900/120mm f/7.5 Equinox ED doublet refractor.
Skywatcher x 0.85 FR with 2 inch IDAS LPS D2 filter
MoonLite electronic focuser
Astro-modified Canon 80D at ISO400; 24 x 10 minute subs
NEQ6 pro mount with Rowan belt drives -2 star align.
Camera control with Backyard EOS
60 Flats EL panel: 1/40s @ ISO400
81 Darks @ 5-10c
Master Bias from Library, 04/2020
Camera sensor temperature (external battery): 5-6c
Post processed in PixInsight 1.8.8 and Photoshop CC 2021.
Local parameters:
Temp: 3.0 - 4.2c
Humidity: 65.4%
Pressure: 1017 hPa
Light Pollution and Weather:
SQM (L) at end of session (0132 hrs UT) =20.10 mag/arcsec2.
Clear, all subs good.
Polar Alignment:
QHY Polemaster alignment -
Error measured by PHD2= 1.2 arc minute.
RA drift + 0.68 arcsec/min
Dec drift + 0.85 arcsec/min
Guiding:
PHD2 guiding with ZWO ASI290mm/PrimaLuce Lab 240/60mm guide scope. Every 3rd shot dithered.
RA RMS error 0.67 arcsec, peak error -2.33 arcsec
Dec RMS error 0.46 arcsec, peak error -1.93 arcsec
Astrometry:
Center (RA): 11h 13m 12.488s
Center (Dec): +55° 17' 53.98"
Size: 1d 20m 11.6s x 54m 56.0s
Image scale: 0.977 arcsec/pixel
Focal distance: 781.48mm
Pixel Size 3.7 microm
Had some problems with this - although guiding parameters were excellent, I've got some trailing which might be due to differential flexure - my guide scope is comprised of a main tube, coarse focuser and helical focuser and there was a bit of loose play at each junction. Have tightened the grub screws up and will make sure scope is tightly aligned with main scope.
Secondly, Ive got red haloes around the bright stars - not the blue/violet you would expect with a doublet scope - the last time I had this problem, it was due to a IDAS LPS D2 clip in filter. I usually use the D1 version without issues. Funny that it has resurfaced with the 2 inch D2 filter currently fitted in my field flattener - think it will have to go!
Can fix these with a little bench work I hope.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features NGC4826 — a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). This galaxy is often referred to as the “Black Eye”, or “Evil Eye”, galaxy because of the dark band of dust that sweeps across one side of its bright nucleus.
NGC4826 is known by astronomers for its strange internal motion. The gas in the outer regions of this galaxy and the gas in its inner regions are rotating in opposite directions, which might be related to a recent merger. New stars are forming in the region where the counter rotating gases collide.
This galaxy was first discovered in 1779 by the English astronomer Edward Pigott.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
NGC 4666 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This majestic spiral galaxy lies about 80 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and is undergoing a particularly intense episode of star formation. Astronomers refer to galaxies which are forming stars anomalously quickly as starburst galaxies. NGC 4666’s starburst is thought to be due to gravitational interactions with its unruly neighbours — including the nearby galaxy NGC 4668 and a dwarf galaxy.
NGC 4666’s burst of star formation is driving an unusual form of extreme galactic weather known as a superwind — a gigantic transfer of gas from the bright central heart of the galaxy out into space. This superwind is the result of driving winds from short-lived massive stars formed during NGC 4666’s starburst as well as spectacularly energetic supernova explosions. Two such supernova explosions have been seen in NGC 4666 within the last decade — one in 2014 and the other in 2019. The star which led to the 2019 supernova was recently determined to be 19 times as massive as our Sun!
At peak, supernovae are often the brightest sources of light in their galaxies, shining so bright that they can be seen clear across the Universe. The 2014 supernova in NGC 4666 is still active in this image, but more than 900 days after it peaked, the supernova has faded from its former glory and looks like just one more star in this busy galaxy.
Though the torrent of superheated gas emanating from NGC 4666 is truly vast in scale — extending for tens of thousands of light-years — it is invisible in this image. The superwind’s extremely high temperature makes it stand out as a luminous plume in x-ray or radio observations, but it doesn’t show up at the visible wavelengths imaged by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur; CC BY 4.0 - Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
A much more conventional looking spiral this time - shows how the spiral arms should be blue. Has quite a small core/bulge.
One of about 50 galaxies in our neighbouring "Local Group", Messier 33 lies about 2.7 million LY away. A trail of gas connects it to the much larger Andromeda galaxy and it is likely that it has gravitationally interacted with Andromeda in the past - this may explain why M33 has a very small core region.
Several areas in the galaxy are bright enough to warrant their own NGC classification numbers:
NGC 604 is the very prominent HII region at the NW
NGC 595 is a smaller bright HII region just to the right and above the core.
NGC 592 lies due East of the core and is a small diffuse HII area
NGC 588 lies along the same line as NGC 592 - just further East. Another diffuse HII zone.
Apparent size: 70.8 x 41 arc minutes
Legacy Data from Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado.
M33 is in the constellation Triangulum.
NGC 253 is a starburst galaxy and the largest member of the Sculptor Group. It is located about 12 million light years away. This galaxy was explored in depth as part of ANGST (ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury, Dalcanton, et al, 2009). There are many open star clusters in the central region, including one that has a high number of Wolf-Rayet stars. Somehow, only one supernova (SN 1940E) has been observed in visible light in this galaxy. I think it's worth keeping an eye on.
This is a combination of 18 5 min RGB frames shot from dark skies during two previous imaging sessions, and 20 4 min H-alpha frames shot from my backyard on 2021-09-05. This was all done with a Celestron Edge HD 925 with a HyperStar to bring the focal length to 535 mm. RGB frames were taken with an Atik 314L+ color CCD, and H-alpha frames were taken with an Atik 414EX mono with Atik H-alpha filter. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; frames were registered and stacked in PixInsight, then channels were combined and initial processing done; final touches in Photoshop.
The tranquil spiral galaxy UGC 12295 basks leisurely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies around 192 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces, and is almost face-on when viewed from Earth, displaying a bright central bar and tightly wound spiral arms.
Despite appearing as an island of tranquillity in this image, UGC 12295 played host to a catastrophically violent explosion — a supernova — that was first detected in 2015. This supernova prompted two different teams of astronomers to propose Hubble observations of UGC 12295 that would sift through the wreckage of this vast stellar explosion.
Supernovae are the explosive deaths of massive stars, and are responsible for forging many of the elements found here on Earth. The first team of astronomers used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to examine the detritus left behind by the supernova in order to better understand the evolution of matter in our Universe.
The second team of astronomers also used WFC3 to explore the aftermath of UGC 12295’s supernova, but their investigation focused on returning to the sites of some of the best-studied nearby supernovae. Hubble’s keen vision can reveal lingering traces of these energetic events, shedding light on the nature of the systems that host supernovae.
[Image Description: A broad spiral galaxy seen directly face-on. It has two bright spiral arms that extend from a bar, which shines from the very centre. Additional fainter arms branch off from these, studded with bright blue patches of star formation. Small, distant galaxies are dotted around it, on a dark background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, J. Lyman; CC BY 4.0