Sky this Week

NGC 891 in the constellation Andromeda is thought to be very similar to our own Milky Way galaxy. It appears as a long thin needle as our view of it is edge on. Dust lanes appear to bisect the disk through its entire length. 

Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II was used to take the image from Louisville, CO on Sept 3, 2006 around 05:34 UT. Temperature was 42°F, 77% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was good, and turbulence about 5/10.

About a degree north and west of the brightest star in Pegasus, Markab, is a nice galaxy triplet of NGC 7463, 7464, and 7465. NGC 7465 appears to be the brightest of the three and has a bright central core.

Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II was used to take the image from Louisville, CO on Sept 3, 2006 around 05:57 UT (just before midnight Sept 2). Temperature was 42°F, 77% humidity, sky was clear, transparency was good, and turbulence about 5/10.

Seyfert’s Sextet (Hickson 79) located in the constellation Serpens is one of the densest known galaxy groups.  Four of the galaxies are believed to be interacting  (NGC 6027, and NGC 6027a-c). Component “d” is not part of a group, it is further distant and just happens to be in line of sight. Component “e” is thought to be a tidal tail thrown out from gravitational interaction.

Images taken from Louisville, CO June 26, 2006 at 11:59 MDT with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Camera settings: integrate 128, gain 9/14, medium gamma. Images were dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked 150 images with Registax3. Brightness enhanced with ImagePlus, cropped with Photoshop Elements. Sky was clear, temperature 57°F, transparency very good, turbulence 6/10.

I recently received the “Galaxy Groups and Clusters” book from the Astroleague and decided to try imaging some of the listed objects. Below is an image of NGC 5171 in constellation Virgo. There are at least 9, probably more galaxies shown in the image which I’ve identified 7.

Location Louisville, CO, time 11:45 to 0:015 MDT. Weather clear, temperature 57°F, humidty 60%, no wind, clear sky, transparency very good, turbulence good (6/10). Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Integration at 256, gamma at medium and gain at 9/14. Fifteen minutes of video was dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected. Aligned and stacked with Registax3, brightness enhanced with ImagePlus, cropped and labeled with Photoshop Elements2.