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Galaxies - How far a can you go

mdstuart

By mdstuart
in The Astro Lounge

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mdstuart

mdstuart

Posted
Posted

I enjoy seeing how far away objects are. My passion is galaxies so this post is about galaxy distances.

If you go out on a clear February night (!) then try this test.

Level 1 Andromeda galaxy 2.5 million light years

Level 2 M81/ M82 12 million light years

Level 3 NGC 2903 LEO 30 million light years

Level 4 NGC 5322 (UMA) 100 million light years - Mag 10

Level 5 NGC 1060 (TRI) 230 million light years - Mag 12

Level 6 NGC 6251 (UMI) 300 million light years - Mag 12.6

Level 7 NGC 2488 (LYN) 380 million light years - Mag 13

Other than quasars this is as far as I can get with my 10 inch scope at this time of year...

To be honest this is only scratching the surface compared to the distance of galaxies that the hubble sees but its still mind numbing. :shocked:

NGC 2488 would be about half way out from the centre on this scale http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/superc.html

Have you seen any galaxies that are further away?

Regards

Mark

P.S above distances only checked to various sources on the internet and in some cases just estimated from their recessional velocity so do not quote me on them!

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John

John

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Thanks Mark - I've only managed to "reach" about 100 million LY's so far so I'll gladly accept your challenge and go for more :smiley:

I believe the Quasar 3C 273 in Virgo is around mag 13 so should be possible under good conditions. That one is 2.4 billion LY's away !

Have you ever spotted / tried for that one ?

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Astrobits

Astrobits

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Thanks Mark - I've only managed to "reach" about 100 million LY's so far so I'll gladly accept your challenge and go for more :smiley:

I believe the Quasar 3C 273 in Virgo is around mag 13 so should be possible under good conditions. That one is 2.4 billion LY's away !

Have you ever spotted / tried for that one ?

Yup. nabbed that one in 2010. Used my 16" but with a low power which limited the effective aperture to about 12" It was fairly easy as I could see stars around it 14th mag.

Nigel

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cantab

cantab

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My furthest so far is M81/82, with the 15x70s. I've yet to try looking for any galaxies in my scope.

If the main "goal" is distance though, why not the Leo Triplet over NGC 2903?

For that matter maybe this could be done a bit more rigorously. Start with M31 say, then the brightest galaxy further than that, then the brightest further than that, and so on.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Cantab

Thanks for your contribution. Yes the Leo triplet would ba a good set to go for. I suppose I was trying to restrict myself to what is up by midnight and I did cut off at the right side of Leo. And it was just a bit of fun. You are right I could have been more rigorous...

M81/M82 are such an amazing sight...I have managed NGC 2655 in my 20 x 80 mm which is 75 million light years away so that is twice the distance of the Leo triplet..

Well done DKD. That NGC 772 is a bit of a tough one to pick up even in my 10 inch at times. Lovely galaxy in the professional images..

Mark

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