View allAll Photos Tagged SPIRALGALAXY
The spiral galaxy NGC 2008 sits centre stage, its ghostly spiral arms spreading out towards us, in this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
This galaxy is located about 425 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pictor (The Painter’s Easel). Discovered in 1834 by astronomer John Herschel, NGC 2008 is categorised as a type Sc galaxy in the Hubble sequence, a system used to describe and classify the various morphologies of galaxies. The “S” indicates that NGC 2008 is a spiral, while the “c” means it has a relatively small central bulge and more open spiral arms. Spiral galaxies with larger central bulges tend to have more tightly wrapped arms, and are classified as Sa galaxies, while those in between are classified as type Sb.
Spiral galaxies are ubiquitous across the cosmos, comprising over 70% of all observed galaxies — including our own, the Milky Way. However, their ubiquity does not detract from their beauty. These grand, spiralling collections of billions of stars are among the most wondrous sights that have been captured by telescopes such as Hubble, and are firmly embedded in astronomical iconography.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Bellini; CC BY 4.0
I am going to have to come back to this and see what I can do with the mono camera and RGB filters at f/6.3. There's not much more detail in the galaxy that my original process of this, but the stars are much sharper with the hydrogen-alpha frames as the basis for registration.
RGB frames shot with an Atik 314L+ color CCD from Death Valley, CA
Hα frames shot with an Atik 414-EX monochrome CCD from Long Beach, CA
All taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar; preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop
I added colour data from a previous session with a smaller scope - T3 in April 2016.
Close-up of interacting galaxies, large M51 and small NGC 5195 - NGC 5195 has sprayed several plumes of stars into surrounding space.
Distant edge-on spiral galaxy, IC 4277, looks almost dull beside the exuberance of this interacting pair which are also in the Arp catalogue of interacting galaxies (Arp 85).
No one is quite sure how to classify NGC 5195 - it seems to resemble an elliptical galaxy or a spiral core with its disc ripped off which is understandable.
Source: Annals of the Deep Sky, J Kanipe and D Webb, Volume 3. Willmann-Bell Publishers 2016.
17 x 10 min subs taken remotely from Nerpio in Spain with iTelescope T7.
46 x 5 min subs taken remotely from Mayhill, New Mexico with iTelescope T3.
Stacked, drizzled and deconvoluted in PixInsight 1.8 and then high pass/overlay in Photoshop.
NGC 4639 is a beautiful example of a type of galaxy known as a barred spiral. It lies over 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo and is one of about 1,500 galaxies that make up the Virgo Cluster.
In this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, one can clearly see the bar running through the bright, round core of the galaxy. Bars are found in around two-thirds of spiral galaxies, and are thought to be a natural phase in their evolution.
The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with bright regions of active star formation. Each of these tiny jewels is actually several hundred light-years across and contains hundreds or thousands of newly formed stars. But NGC 4639 also conceals a dark secret in its core — a massive black hole that is consuming the surrounding gas.
This is known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and is revealed by characteristic features in the spectrum of light from the galaxy and by X-rays produced close to the black hole as the hot gas plunges towards it.
Most galaxies are thought to contain a black hole at the center. NGC 4639 is in fact a very weak example of an AGN, demonstrating that AGNs exist over a large range of activity, from galaxies like NGC 4639 to distant quasars, where the parent galaxy is almost completely dominated by the emissions from the AGN.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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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This is the spiral galaxy named Messier 94 (M94 or NGC 4736) found in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.99 and is about 16 million light-years away from Earth.
From NASA - New stars are forming at a high rate within the bright ring. This region is known as a starburst ring. The cause of this peculiarly shaped star-forming region is likely a pressure wave traveling outward from the galactic center, compressing the gas and dust in the outer regions. The compression of material means the gas starts to collapse into denser clouds. Inside these dense clouds, gravity pulls the gas and dust together until the temperature and pressure are high enough for stars to be born.
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Right ascension: 12h 50m 53.1s
Declination: +41° 07′ 14″
Apparent dimension (V): 11.2’ × 9.1’
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.99
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 66 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats, processed using PixInsight and DSS. Image Date: January 26, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The galaxies M105, NGC 3384 and NGC 3373 form a nice galactic triplet in the constellation Leo. M105 is the elliptical galaxy on the bottom of the image, NGC 3384 is the elliptical galaxy on the upper right and NGC 3373 is a spiral galaxy on the upper left. Magnitudes for these galaxies are 9.3 for M105, 10.0 for NGC 3384 and 11.8 for NGC 3373. The distance to these galaxies is roughly 30+ million light years.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, 67 x 60 second at -10C, 30 darks and 30 flats, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro and processed using PixInsight. Image date: April 3, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
NGC 4535 (at the top) is a barred spiral galaxy also known as Copeland's Lost Galaxy. At the bottom of the image is NGC 4526, a lenticular galaxy where a Type Ia supernova was visible in 1994. The distances to these galaxies has been measured at 51 and 52 million light years, respectively (arxiv.org:1806.02900 and 1807.11493), making them members of the Virgo Cluster.
Shot with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar from my Bortle 8/9 backyard in Long Beach, CA. The camera was an Atik 314L+ color CCD with light pollution filter. This is a stack of 40 3 mn exposures. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
Data was collected on the morning of 2022-04-08.
Here is a wide-field view of the Andromeda Galaxy using the Williams Optics Redcat 51 APO telescope. The Andromeda Galaxy is also designated Messier 31 (M31) and is the nearest major galaxy to out Milky Way. 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: Williams Optics Redcat 51 APO, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, Canon 6D stock camera, ISO 3200, 46 x 60 second exposures with dark/bias frames, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Image date: September 25, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Messier 99 or M99 (NGC 4254) in the constellation Coma Berenices is a spiral galaxy approximately 56 million light-years away from Earth. Burnham states, “The spiral pattern is very well defined, although somewhat asymmetric, with an unusually far-extending arm on the west side….”
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, 49 x 60 second exposures, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro and processed using PixInsight. Image date: April 19, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
Our nearest major galaxy neighbor at 2.5 million light years with similar size but almost twice as many stars. Amazingly it was not known that this was a galaxy outside our own until astronomer Edwin Hubble made the discovery in 1923. Observations of variable stars within Andromeda enabled the distance to be calculated and at that point in history the universe suddenly became a lot bigger. Before that it was thought our Milky Way galaxy was all there was in the universe!
The Andromeda galaxy is located in the constellation of the same name and in a reasonably dark sky it can be spotted with the naked eye in late Summer and Fall.
Capture info:
Location: Orion’s Belt Remote Observatory, Mayhill, New Mexico
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ 106N
Camera: SBIG STXL 6303E
Mount: Paramount MX+
Data: LRGB 5,4,5,6 hours respectively
Processing: Pixinsight
Messier 58 (M58 or NGC 4579) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo and is about 68 million light years away from Earth. In the Messier Catalog, this galaxy is the most distant object.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI071mc-Pro, Antares Focal Reducer, 63 x 60 second at -10C, 30 darks and 30 flats, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Captured using Sequence Generator Pro and processed using PixInsight. Image date: March 20, 2021. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
NGC 2841 is a spiral galaxy found in the constellation Ursa Major. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.1 and is about 46 million light years from Earth.
Tech Specs: This image is composed of 60 x 60 second images at ISO 3,200 with darks, bias and flat frames using a Meade LX90 12” telescope and Canon 6D camera mounted on a Celestron CGEM-DX mount. Date: March 4, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Messier 99 or M99 (NGC 4254) in the constellation Coma Berenices is a spiral galaxy approximately 56 million light-years away from Earth. Burnham states, “The spiral pattern is very well defined, although somewhat asymmetric, with an unusually far-extending arm on the west side….”
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Right ascension: 12h 18m 49.625s
Declination: +14° 24′ 59.36″
Distance: 45.2 Mly
Group or cluster: Virgo Cluster
Apparent magnitude (V): 9.9
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro mount that is pier mounted, ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 54 x 60 seconds at -10C, processed using DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: March 26, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W95), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Second attempt at editing this stack of 6 frames taken on a 5D mark ii with a 300mm f4 L Lens and tracked using a skytracker.
Next time I need to take more frames and include more dark, bias frames etc.
Far from prefect I know so any tips or advice greatly appreciated
12 300sec. exposures, Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 refractor, ZWO ASI294MC camera, UV/IR cut filter, iOptron CEM25P mount, ASIAir controller, processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom.
The 81st entry in Charles Messier’s catalog which he made in 1799 was actually discovered by German astronomer Johann Bode 5 years earlier in 1774. Thus, M81 is also referred to as “Bode’s Nebula”. It is a galaxy, similar in size to our Milky Way, that lies approximately 12 million light years from Earth.
M81 is one of the largest and brightest galaxies visible in the night sky and in fact is easily seen with a pair of binoculars if the sky is dark enough.
The galaxy’s spiral arms, which wind all the way down into its nucleus, are made up of young, bluish, high temperature stars formed in the past few million years. They also host a population of stars formed in an episode of star formation that started about 600 million years ago.
The galaxy’s central bulge contains much older, redder stars.
Immediately surrounding the galaxy are some relatively faint gaseous “wisps”. These are part of the Integrated Flux Nebulae. The “IFN” is prominent in the direction of the north and south celestial poles and lie outside of our galaxy. The IFN are an integral part of the interstellar medium and are composed of dust, hydrogen and some other elements.
Capture info:
Location: SkyPi Remote Observatory, Pie Town NM US
Telescope: Orion Optics UK AG14 (F3.8)
Camera: QHY 268M
Mount: 10Micron GM3000
Data: LRGB 9, 5.5, 5, 5.5 hours approximately.
Processing: Pixinsight
This is the barred-spiral galaxy Messier 109 (M109 or NGC 3992) found in the constellation Ursa Major. M109 is about 83 million light years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.6. M109 has several satellite galaxies all visible in this image. Estimates indicate that this galaxy contains about 1 trillion stars!
If you are viewing this on Facebook, I've also included an annotated image.
Distance to Earth: 83 million light years
Apparent Magnitude: 10.6
Right ascension: 11h 57m 36.0s
Declination: +53° 22′ 28″
Apparent dimensions: 7.6 × 4.7 arc minutes
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 135 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats, processed using PixInsight and DSS. Image Date: January 3, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Technical Information:
Telescope: AIRY APO 130T PrimaLuceLab
Mount: Paramount MyT - Software Bisque
Camera: QHY168C -- Gain:10 ; Offset:50 -- -20°C with Dark and Flat Frames
Filter: Optolong 2" L-Pro, Optolong 2" L-eNhance
Frames: RGGB:
L-Pro: 150 x 240s -- L-eNhance: 21 x 600s
Total Integration: 12,5 Hours
Software: SGP – TheSkyX – PHD2 – PixInsight – CS6
Location: Noventa di Piave (Venice) 4 meter above sea level – ITALY
Environment Temperature: About 6°C
Relative Humidity: 88%
Date: 19.02.20 - 20.02.20 - 04.03.20
NOTE: The image was acquired from a very polluted sky (Red Zone)
Unfortunately, the seeing was not very good but I am quite happy of this result.
The image has been cropped because the field was larger and this helped ti hiligh more the galaxy.
This is a stack of 8 150 s exposures taken around 2021-06-11 05:15 UT. The Leo Triplet consists of M65 (lower right), M66 (lower left) and NGC 3628 (top). These galaxies appear in Leo, about 8° north of the ecliptic. Since the inclination of Vesta's orbit is a bit over 7° to the ecliptic and its orbit is larger than Earth's, it can be photographed with the three galaxies.
Subframes taken with an Atik 314L+ color CCD on a HyperStar on a Celestron Edge HD 925. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; processing in PixInsight with final touches in Photoshop.
Vesta is the bright object in the lower right corner.
Messier 33 / M33 / NGC 598 / The Triangulum Galaxy
M33 is a spiral galaxy 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum. It is the third-largest member of the Local Group (behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way), with a diameter of 60,000 light-years. It contains about 40 billion stars, significantly less than the 400 billion in the Milky Way and the 1 trillion in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Total integration: 15 hours 16 minutes (916 minutes)
01/25/19: 1 x 120 seconds ISO800
01/25/19: 109 x 60 seconds ISO800
01/26/19: 104 x 60 seconds ISO800
01/27/19: 103 x 60 seconds ISO800
01/31/19: 107 x 60 seconds ISO800
10/02/19: 1 x 60 seconds ISO800
10/02/19: 98 x 120 seconds ISO400
10/03/19: 116 x 120 seconds ISO400
10/04/19: 31 x 120 seconds ISO400
Location: Charlottesville, VA
SQM: 19.22 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6)
Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)
Average camera temperature: 95 F (35 C)
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G
Guide scope: Svbony 50mm f/4.0 Guide Scope
Guide camera: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider
Software: N.I.N.A. with ASTAP (slewing and plate solving), PHD2 (guiding), Magic Lantern (image capture)
Pre-processed with PixInsight, processed with PixInsight and Paint.NET
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."
-Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
I've never done any wild and crazy editing that I ended up sharing, but I've always wanted to. I think it's fun to take photographs and morph them into something else. It's like another level of art. I guess I consider photography to be it's own art form and photomaniuplation to be in it's own category.
Now that I'm done with my 365 project, I have a few ideas floating in my head about what I'd like to start next. A few collaborations, maybe, we'll see.
Happy Tuesday!
We had clear skies for a few hours last week, so I tried grabbing data in 5 channels from my light polluted backyard.
L channel: combination of 25 s and 60 s subframes
R channel: 29 60 s subframes
G channel: not usable
B channel: 41 60 s subframes
H-alpha: 11 180 s subframes
There was a weird artifact in my green channel images, so I mixed the signal from red and blue and used photometric color correction on the resulting RGB image to try to adjust for it.
Celestron Edge HD 925 at 1530 mm focal length
Atik 414-EX mono camera
Optolong filter set
The supernova is the brightest "star" in the image, at about the 8 o'clock position.
Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in GIMP
Mon tout premier essai pour capturer la Galaxie d'Andromède - Nuit du 19 au 20 août 2015.
My first Andromeda Galaxy shot.
Canon Eos 500D sur trépied + objectif Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8. Utilisation d'un intervallomètre.
Réglages : 50mm - F2.8 - 3200 iso
57 RAW de 8 secondes + 8 Dark additionnés avec DSS.
Temps total de la pose : 7mn36s.
Far From Earth
Interplanetary Travel
Youtube: A Silent Universe (Space Dreams) Ambient Music"
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
თბილისი, საქართველო (Tbilisi, Georgia)
This is the face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces known as Messier 74 (M74 or NGC 628). At a distance of 32 million light-years, this galaxy sports two beautiful spiral arms, it has an estimated 100 billion stars.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, Canon 6D stock camera, ISO 3200, 57 x 60 second exposures with dark/bias frames, guided using a ZWO ASI290MC and Orion 60mm guide scope. Image date: October 13, 2018. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
This dark, tangled web is an object named SNR 0454-67.2. It formed in a very violent fashion — it is a supernova remnant, created after a massive star ended its life in a cataclysmic explosion and threw its constituent material out into surrounding space. This created the messy formation we see in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, with threads of red snaking amidst dark, turbulent clouds.
SNR 0454-67.2 is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf spiral galaxy that lies close to the Milky Way. The remnant is likely the result of a Type Ia supernova explosion; this category of supernovae is formed from the death of a white dwarf star, which grows and grows by siphoning material from a stellar companion until it reaches a critical mass and then explodes.
As they always form via a specific mechanism — when the white dwarf hits a particular mass — these explosions always have a well-known luminosity, and are thus used as markers (standard candles) for scientists to obtain and measure distances throughout the Universe.
Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA; CC BY 4.0
Taking center stage in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a galaxy known as NGC 3081, set against an assortment of glittering galaxies in the distance. Located in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Serpent), NGC 3081 is located over 86 million light-years from us. It is known as a type II Seyfert galaxy, characterized by its dazzling nucleus.
NGC 3081 is seen here nearly face-on. Compared to other spiral galaxies, it looks a little different. The galaxy's barred spiral center is surrounded by a bright loop known as a resonance ring. This ring is full of bright clusters and bursts of new star formation, and frames the supermassive black hole thought to be lurking within NGC 3081 — which glows brightly as it hungrily gobbles up in-falling material.
These rings form in particular locations known as resonances, where gravitational effects throughout a galaxy cause gas to pile up and accumulate in certain positions. These can be caused by the presence of a "bar" within the galaxy, as with NGC 3081, or by interactions with other nearby objects. It is not unusual for rings like this to be seen in barred galaxies, as the bars are very effective at gathering gas into these resonance regions, causing pile-ups which lead to active and very well-organized star formation.
Hubble snapped this magnificent face-on image of the galaxy using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. This image is made up of a combination of ultraviolet, optical, and infrared observations, allowing distinctive features of the galaxy to be observed across a wide range of wavelengths.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; acknowledgement: R. Buta (University of Alabama)
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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My only other image of this galaxy was from when a supernova was visible.
Now? No supernova.The RGB data was taken in October 2020 with Hα data added in January 2021. This image is a bit of a mess, but it was what I could do with about 3 hours of data from my very light polluted yard.
All subframes taken with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar. RGB data was taken with an Atik 314L+ CCD camera with a light pollution filter; Hα data was taken with an Atik 414-EX with an Atik hydrogen-alpha filter. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; channel combination and subsequent processing in Pixinsight; final touches in Photoshop.
Messier 96 (also known as M96 or NGC 3368) is a spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. It is categorized as a double-barred spiral galaxy with a small inner bulge through the core along with an outer bulge.
Tech Specs: Meade 12" LX90, Canon 6D, 45 x 60 seconds at ISO 3200 (includes darks, bias and flats), guided, processed with DSS. Image Date: March 12, 2019. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
Messier 106 (M106, also known as NGC 4258) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici and is approximately 23.7 million light years from Earth. The galaxy is thought to contain 400 billion stars.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Right ascension: 12h 18m 57.5s
Declination: +47° 18′ 14″[1]
Redshift: 448 ± 3 km/s
Distance: 23.7 ± 1.5 Mly
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.4
Size: 135,000 ly (in diameter)
Apparent size (V): 18′.6 × 7′.2
Tech Specs: Orion 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Astrograph Telescope, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO ASI290MC and ASI071MC-Pro, ZWO AAPlus, ZWO EAF, 66 x 60 seconds at -10C plus darks and flats, processed using PixInsight and DSS. Image Date: January 26, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
NGC 4402 and edge on spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo.
This Data was taken from the Hubble Legacy Archive and processed by me.
First time trying out processing Hubble Data. I still need to find a way of removing the hotpixels. They are especially noticable in a stripe from the top to the bottom in the middle of the image. This is because Hubbles Sensor is made up of two sensors and that stripe is the seam between these two.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).
M82 (Cigar Galaxy) Edge on Galaxy found in the constellation of Ursa Major.
M: iOptron iEQ45-Pro
T: Celestron C8 SCT
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
G: OAG and PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI220MM
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -10 DegC
Filter: No Filter
Gain 139; Exp: 18 x 120s
Frames: 18 Lights
Cal Frames: DarkFlats/Flats
Total Exposure: ~36 mins
90% Crop
Capture: NINA
Processed: APP; PS.
Sky: No moon, no breeze, no cloud.
The focus of this image is the pair of elliptical galaxies in the center of view, they are the large elliptical galaxy NGC 507 and the smaller one above is NGC 508. They are located 210 million light years away in the constellation of Pisces. NGC 507 is classified in the Arp Catalog as Arp 229, Galaxies with Concentric Rings. Looking closely at my image you can see the “ring” which Arp identified. There are so many galaxies in this image!
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO AS071 running at -10C, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ZWO ASIAir Plus, ZWO EAF, 108 x 60 second exposures, darks from the library and flats after the imaging session. Image Date: October 29, 2022. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The subject of this Picture of the Week, a spiral galaxy named NGC 1589, was once the scene of a violent bout of cosmic hunger pangs; as astronomers looked on, a poor, hapless star was torn apart and devoured by the ravenous supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy.
The astronomers are now using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to test this interpretation. Hubble has observed such events before so the scientists are confident that Hubble will be able to provide smoking gun evidence in the form of stellar debris that was ejected during the disruption event.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA; CC BY 4.0
Here is a triplet of galaxies often referred to as the Draco Trio, NGC 5985, NGC 5982 and NGC 5981. The grouping includes the edge-on barred spiral galaxy, NGC 5981, on the right. The elliptical galaxy NGC 5982 in the center. The last, NGC 5985 is a beautiful face on barred spiral galaxy, on the left. These galaxies are about 100 million light years away. Tech Specs: This image is composed of 60 x 15 second images at ISO 3200 with additional dark and bias frames. Equipment included a Meade LX90 12” telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, and Canon 6D camera. Imaging was done on September 1, 2016.
The Specters of Plutonia
Interplanetary Travel
Youtube: "4K" Road Trip in Tunisia - Visiting Tunisia "2019"
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
1.2hrs of stacked photo's.
Stock DSLR, Sigma Lens and star adventurer tracker.
Calibration shots:
175 Lights
75 Darks
80 Flats
100 Bias
Lying more than 110 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Antlia (The Air Pump) is the spiral galaxy IC 2560, shown here in an image from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. At this distance it is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, and is part of the Antlia cluster — a group of over 200 galaxies held together by gravity. This cluster is unusual; unlike most other galaxy clusters, it appears to have no dominant galaxy within it.
In this image, it is easy to spot IC 2560's spiral arms and barred structure. This spiral is what astronomers call a Seyfert-2 galaxy, a kind of spiral galaxy characterized by an extremely bright nucleus and very strong emission lines from certain elements — hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, and oxygen. The bright center of the galaxy is thought to be caused by the ejection of huge amounts of super-hot gas from the region around a central black hole.
There is a story behind the naming of this quirky constellation — Antlia was originally named antlia pneumatica by French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, in honor of the invention of the air pump in the 17th century.
Credit: Hubble/European Space Agency and NASA
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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Find us on Instagram
Every now and then, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope glimpses a common object — say, a spiral galaxy — in an interesting or unusual way. A sharply angled perspective, such as the one shown in this Picture of the Week, can make it seem as if we, the viewers, are craning our necks to see over a barrier into the galaxy's bright centre.
In the case of NGC 3169, this barrier is the thick dust embedded within the galaxy's spiral arms. Cosmic dust comprises a potpourri of particles, including water ice, hydrocarbons, silicates, and other solid material. It has many origins and sources, from the leftovers of star and planet formation to molecules modified over millions of years by interactions with starlight.
NGC 3169 is located about 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant). It is part of the Leo I Group of galaxies, which, like the Local Group that houses our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of a larger galactic congregation known as the Virgo Supercluster.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Ho; CC BY 4.0
Obscurity
Interplanetary Travel
Youtube: June 6, 2020 Full Moon "Moonrise" 1080p HD Full Moon video and Relaxing Ambient Music - Canon
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X7i
Photograph by Yusuf Alioglu
Location: Outer space (space)
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer William Herschel.
Its orientation to us, while not exactly face-on, allows us to see NGC 3887’s spiral arms and central bulge in detail, making it an ideal target for studying a spiral galaxy’s winding arms and the stars within them.
The very existence of spiral arms was for a long time a problem for astronomers. The arms emanate from a spinning core and should therefore become wound up ever more tightly, causing them to eventually disappear after a (cosmologically) short amount of time. It was only in the 1960s that astronomers came up with the solution to this winding problem; rather than behaving like rigid structures, spiral arms are in fact areas of greater density in a galaxy’s disc, with dynamics similar to those of a traffic jam. The density of cars moving through a traffic jam increases at the centre of the jam, where they move more slowly. Spiral arms function in a similar way; as gas and dust move through the density waves they become compressed and linger, before moving out of them again.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.; CC BY 4.0
The Milky Way above the Z Tree in the Dwarf Cypress Forest in Everglades National Park.
Direct image link:
mark-andrew-thomas.pixels.com/featured/planet-everglades-...
NGC 6872, also known as the Condor Galaxy, is a large barred spiral galaxy of type SB(s)b pec in the constellation Pavo. NGC 6872 is interacting with the lenticular galaxy IC 4970, which is less than one twelfth as large. The galaxy has two elongated arms; from tip to tip, NGC 6872 measures 522,000 light-years (160,000 pc), making it one of the largest known spiral galaxies.
NGC 6872 is a member of a small cluster of galaxies centred on the giant elleptical galaxy, NGC 6876, which is the brightest galaxy in the image (top right).
RA: 20h 19m 02.16s
DEC: -70° 42' 14.5"
Location: Pavo
Distance: 210 Mly
Magnitude: 11.6
Acquisition September 2020
Total acquisition time of 25 hours.
Technical Details
Data acquisition: Martin PUGH
Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND
Location: El Sauce Observatory, Rio Hurtado, Chile
L 21 x 1200 sec
R 15 x 1200 sec
G 15 x 1200 sec
B 15 x 1200 sec
Ha 6 x 1800 sec
Optics: Planewave 17“ CDK @ F6.8
Mount: Paramount ME
CCD: SBIG STXL-11002 (AOX)
Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Camera: Fuji X-T20
Lens: TAIR PhS 4.5/300mm with Focal Reducer
Mount: AstroTrac TT320
Frames: 22 (1 Minute exposure each)
Stacked with DDS and edited in Photoshop
My First try to take a photo of a deepsky object. I think it is good but I have some room for improvement left :) You can also see M110 and M32 in this picture.
target for (brief) night sky photo-- April 8, 2023 from near caddo gap, ARK. USA... several other galaxies are in the background. Scientific measurements place the distance from earth to M106 between 22-25 million light years (go figure).
photo notes: Nikon D500 with Svbony 102mm f/7 OTA on SW EQ-6 mount. 40 x1 minute exposures @ ISO 2,000.
stacked in Sequetor; processed via Photoshop
M106_D500-102mmOTA_4-8-23c
M51 is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It's distance is estimated to be 23 million light-years away from Earth.
Equipment & Image Details:
Celestron 8" Edge HD scope, Celestron CGEM II mount, ZWOASI071MC Pro camera.
RGB subs: 13*360 sec
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
M81 is a grand design spiral galaxy in Ursa Major about 11. 8 million light years away.
Data Acquisition by Vasudevan S. Jagannathan.
Date: 14, 15, 20 December 2023; 5, 8, 11, 12 January 2024.
Location: Washington DC.
Total exposure time: 25.55 hours.
(L: 7.175 hours / R: 4.842 hours / G: 4.375 hours / B: 9.158 hours).
ASI 2600MM Pro camera.
Baader 2" CMOS Optimized LRGB Filter Set.
WO Fluorostar 91mm f/5.9 triplet APO refractor.
iOptron GEM28-EC mount.
Processed completely in PixInsight as follows:
Created L, R, G and B masters.
Created an RGB image using LRGB combination.
Applied Dynamic Background Extractor (DBE), Background Neutralization and Color Calibration.
Used Blur Xterminator and Noise Xterminator.
Applied a Histogram Transformation to create a stretched RGB image.
Created an L image using LRGB Combination.
Applied the same DBE as for the RGB image.
Used Blur Xterminator, Noise Xterminator and a Histogram Transformation to create a stretched L image.
Applied HDR Multiscale Transform (HDR MT) with same parameters to both the RGB and L stretched images.
Used LRGB Combination to apply the HDR MT-stretched L image onto the HDR MT-stretched RGB image.
Used Star Xterminator to split the above-resulting image into starless and stars only images.
Applied Local Histogram Equalization and Curves Transform on the starless image.
Rejoined the processed starless image and the stars only images with Pixel Math.
Applied Topaz's Denoise AI and Gigapixel AI to the rejoined image for further noise reduction and clarity to get a final result.
This little-known galaxy, officially named J04542829-6625280, but most often referred to as LEDA 89996, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. The galaxy is much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The disk-shaped galaxy is seen face on, revealing the winding structure of the spiral arms. Dark patches in these spiral arms are in fact dust and gas — the raw materials for new stars. The many young stars that form in these regions make the spiral arms appear bright and bluish.
The galaxy sits in a vibrant area of the night sky within the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), and appears very close to the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.
The observations were carried out with the high resolution channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Flickr user C. Claude
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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So my obsession with capturing the milky way continues...
This came out pretty well, there's a little bit of trailing but not too much. Shots like these, without the use of an equatorial mount really push the D90 to its limits. It's still quite noisey, but that's almost unavoidable when I was trying to expose the surrounding trees as well.
Star missions are fun :)
I wonder what our night sky will look like when our galaxy collides with Andromeda?
Used the Nikon D90 with the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8
105 second exposure, ISO 800 at f/2.8.