It has been a pretty productive February for astrophotography. I had 4 nights that were too cloudy. It will be cloudy again tonight but tomorrow night might be good. Birding has been very slow again, nothing new to report there.
A new nebula for me, the Angel Nebula, in the constellation Monocerus. It took a lot of exposure to get this but I think it was worth it. I’ve wanted to try this for a long time, the heart of the Coma Cluster of galaxies, located in the Coma Berenices constellation. The mean distance to the galaxies in this cluster is about 320 million light years. That is by far the farthest I have ever photographed anything. By far. When the photons I captured left these galaxies there was only one continent on Earth and the land was covered in dense, swampy forests, during the Carboniferous Period. There are over 1000 galaxies in this cluster, I would guess there are over 100 galaxies in this photo. Here’s a tighter crop of the image. All of these galaxies are in the Coma Cluster. The blue star is in our galaxy. The Seagull Nebula with the 500 f4 lens. NGC 4725, a new galaxy for me. This is located in Coma Berenices and a good target for the C8. M66, one of the galaxies that make up the Leo Triplets. This is the first time I’ve imaged it separately with the C8. It is very colorful. The Intergalactic Wanderer, a very distant star cluster. I recently discovered that there are two listed in Stellarium, one is a mistake. This is the correctly identified Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC 2419, in the Lynx constellation. It is about 300,000 light years away. The Little Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major. Officially NGC 3184. The UFO Galaxy, NGC 2683, in the constellation Lynx. NGC 2903, 30 million light years away in the constellation Leo.
One reply on “February Astro”
All very interesting, good pictures. The idea that there was one continent on Earth and the land was covered in dense, swampy forests really helps give 320 million light years some context. David was impressed with that.
It’s odd that Stellarium has two Intergalactic Wanderers. You should let them know.
One reply on “February Astro”
All very interesting, good pictures. The idea that there was one continent on Earth and the land was covered in dense, swampy forests really helps give 320 million light years some context. David was impressed with that.
It’s odd that Stellarium has two Intergalactic Wanderers. You should let them know.