Messier 87 with the superluminal jet from a 3 inch scope in 15 minutes...

[NickH]

15 mins of 3 minute subs, ED80 at F7.5, ART285, CLS filter... bright moonlit night. M87 and its relativistic jet.. not sure if anyone else has captured this with this aperture before...probably have, but couldn't find an example..

Anyway..

LR process in the first larger inset, and a high pass filter in the smaller inset. It's visible in the normal white light image, but faint, the LR rotational gradient pulls it out a treat.

Been after this one for a while, and quite chuffed with how it came out, give the low angle, fog, moonlight, streetlights of the A4 trying their level best to beat me.

Part of a larger image of the Virgo Group, but which has truly appalling gradients and light pollution issues, so i'm consigning it to the trashcan....

Spent the rest of the weekend imaging the Moon with the C11...too much misty/lighty sky to do anything much else...fog really bad tonight.

So...

Some info on the "Jet"

The inset reveals the jet pointing outwards from the central core of M87, a Galaxy located 52 million LY away (+/- 4 ish), with the jet at about the 2 o'clock position. This jet is a narrow stream of gas and is about 8000 light-years (2.5 kilo- parsecs, or kpc) in length. The energy necessary to provide the needed power for this remarkable stream is provided by a masive black hole in the centre of M87. The presence of the central black hole has been inferred from indirect observations with the Hubble Space Telescope.

[thing]

Stunning Nick, I've been reading up on those jets recently and the energy involved is mind boggling.

[RobH]

Quite an amazing result Nick :hello1:

Wouldn't want to be in the path of that jet!

Cheers

Rob