Various galaxy groups and a globular

[Martin Meredith]

More galaxy group screenshots from Saturday 5th April 2014, 'round midnight. All used the same darks captured earlier and are 30s single Lodestar-C exposures, no filters, with only live tweaking (gamma,contrast, B and W points) in LodestarLive. For these I didn't use any focal reduction, so they are all taken with a 80mm f6 achromat on alt-az tracking.

First up, the Siamese Twins (NGC4567/4568), a pair of 11 Mag galaxies in Virgo. These galaxies are apparently in the early stages of a merger. Above-left is the elliptical NGC4564 (also mag 11) and upper left is the barred spiral M58 (mag 9.7). SkySafari reports that the suggestion of a bar requires 200mm of aperture, which coincides more or less with the idea that sensor-assisted 'live' observation is equivalent to about 3x increase in aperture.

Next its a case of spot the difference. These are the Antennae galaxies (NGC4038/4039) in Corvus, captured at about 28 deg above the horizon. These are both mag 10.3 at around 63 million ly and are in a later stage of interaction than the Siamese pair. At mid-right is another interesting object, NGC4027, a mag 11.1 barred spiral. This is also known as Arp 22 as it has the peculiarity of missing one of its spiral arms, which is pretty evident in this image!

As a bit of challenge, I decided to see how much 30s brings of the Abell 1060 galaxy cluster in Hydra. This was a bit crazy as it was pretty low at the time (about 17 deg -- but it never exceeds 20 deg from my location) and facing towards a huge spotlight illuminating the local church (I think this is responsible for the severe background gradient). This is a zoomed in capture.  

Taking the brighter star as the centre of a circle, you can make our a curved line of 5 galaxies from about 7 o'clock to 3 o'clock. At the 7 o'clock position is NGC3316, mag 12.7. More or less on a line between the two bright stars is NGC3312, a mag 12 spiral. The close pair at 4 o'clock are NGC3312 and NGC3311 (both mag 11.6) with mag 11.9 NGC3308 at 3 o'clock. There are other members of this Abell group in there too although astrometry.net failed to resolve this low-resolution png file. Just to the left of the bright star in the top-left is NGC3315 (mag 13.3), and just below the brightest star (in the direction of the tiny star/hot pixel) is PGC31537 at mag 13.8. (It would have been easier to label the figure I guess.)

Given that it is feasible to capture these little blighters in near-live mode, there are loads of galaxy clusters in this general area which I plan to 'observe' on the next clear nights. Some of them are huge (3 deg or more), so lots to look at.

Finally, as a first go at a globular with this kit, here's M53 (mag 7.6) in Coma. I was hoping to squeeze another globular in (NGC5053) which is less than 1 deg away but didn't have the reducer in at the time. 

Thanks for reading!

Martin

[todd8137]

Nice work

Pat

[Martin Meredith]

Nice work

Pat

Thanks Pat. I've been very lucky to have 6 clear(ish) nights since the mount arrived, and all during galaxy season. Yet to take it out to a really dark site but that's on the agenda.

Martin

[Dragon Man]

Nice work Martin.

Here are your Abell 1060 galaxies 

Well Done!!!

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks Ken for going to the effort! I was really surprised to see any to be honest but this just makes it all the more worth going for other Abell groups, something I wouldn't have dreamed of not so long ago.

Martin

[Paul81]

I've always wanted to see / capture the antennae galaxies myself but sadly Corvus is too low from my location so thanks for posting along with the great write-up! 

I must admit your post has inspired me to go on an Arp hunt on the next clear night - the March issue of AN had a feature on the Arp galaxies in Coma, Canes, Ursa Major, Virgo and Leo so sounded a good evening of video observing to work though the list!

[todd8137]

You must try some more like these

Pat

[nytecam]

Well done Martin - amazing results from a 80mm aperture ...and we all envy your Spanish latitude and clear skies :-)

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks Maurice. Here in the north it is often not much better than the UK (we get the tail end of all the Atlantic depressions hitting the UK) -- better in Valencia or the south -- but I've been lucky these last couple of weeks.

As for latitude, any targets you'd like to see, just let me know!

Martin

[Martin Meredith]

I've always wanted to see / capture the antennae galaxies myself but sadly Corvus is too low from my location so thanks for posting along with the great write-up! 

I must admit your post has inspired me to go on an Arp hunt on the next clear night - the March issue of AN had a feature on the Arp galaxies in Coma, Canes, Ursa Major, Virgo and Leo so sounded a good evening of video observing to work though the list!

Thanks Paul.

As an aside, I bought the complete 8-volume set of the Webb Society Deep Sky Observer's handbooks for a song (about 15 quid if I recall correctly) at Astrofest many years ago and am only now appreciating what a great resource they represent. Volume 4 (Galaxies) has lots of Arp observations (text and drawings)  in various size scopes (mainly 12-16" but occasionally up to 60"  ) while Volume 5 is dedicated entirely to galaxy clusters. It would be really interesting to compare what the Lodestar picks up with some of the eyepiece impressions. There's even a volume on 'anonymous galaxies' (those that don't figure in NGC or IC). These books date from the early 80s and are a real labour of love.

Martin

[Martin Meredith]

You must try some more like these

Pat

Try stopping me! Heading off further south for a few days over easter. I'll have a go at some of the objects in northern Centaurus 

Martin

[todd8137]

Cool will keep a eye for them

Pat

[Dragon Man]

Martin,

Abell 1367 is a real stunner if you can see it OK from your location. It is also known as the Leo Cluster.

NGC 3842 is the brightest galaxy in the cluster, near the centre of it. 

I have had good success with it from here. 

This is the Cluster: http://universe.art.coocan.jp/deepsky/img/Abell1367_050111_wn.jpg

and here is my attempt at the northern half of the cluster with my mallincam, and an ED80, animated to mark the galaxies:

(Screen Grab from my NSN Live Broadcast, no Processing). 

Click on the image to animate it.

[Martin Meredith]

Sure, Leo is way up over here. I'll give that one a go soon.

Thanks 

Martin