IC2005 - a galaxy lurking behind the California Nebula

[gorann]

Just got a nice surprise!

In the plate solving that is automatically done when images are uploaded to Astrobin, I just noticed that in one of my California Nebula images (from 21 Dec 2017), there was also something identified as IC2005. Looking it up it turns out to be a galaxy that is apparently bright enough to shine through the red nebulosity.

So, here it is, lurking in the right end of the image (arrow). I also post a crop of the galaxy area (with IC2005 in the centre). I do not know anything about it - wonder if anyone does?

The image was taken with my ES 127ED refractor (@ FL 752mm) and a Canon 60Da. 18 x 8 min (so 2.4 hours) at ISO1600. Processed in PS.

[Demonperformer]

Lenticular galaxy (= PGC 14168) mag 14.8 Discovered by Stephane Javelle (who discovered 1420 of the objects in IC) on 18 Jan 1898 (#984)

 

[astro mick]

Nice capture.

Mick.

[PhotoGav]

Nicely done!

Info from SkySafari Pro:

IC 2005 is a 15th magnitude Elliptical Galaxy appearing in the constellation Perseus. It is 279 million light years from our solar system.

IC 2005 appears roughly 0.3 x 0.2 arcminutes in size, corresponding to a physical diameter of 27079 light years. It is an elliptical galaxy of morphological type E, and is receding at 5828 kilometers per second - about 1.9% of light speed.

[Demonperformer]

Yes, as well as providing a bit of info, I should have said it was a nice serendipitous capture.

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Demonperformer said:

Lenticular galaxy (= PGC 14168) mag 14.8 Discovered by Stephane Javelle (who discovered 1420 of the objects in IC) on 18 Jan 1898 (#984)

 

 

39 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

Nicely done!

Info from SkySafari Pro:

IC 2005 is a 15th magnitude Elliptical Galaxy appearing in the constellation Perseus. It is 279 million light years from our solar system.

IC 2005 appears roughly 0.3 x 0.2 arcminutes in size, corresponding to a physical diameter of 27079 light years. It is an elliptical galaxy of morphological type E, and is receding at 5828 kilometers per second - about 1.9% of light speed.

 

37 minutes ago, Demonperformer said:

Yes, as well as providing a bit of info, I should have said it was a nice serendipitous capture.

Thanks Mick and Gav!

Especially for the interesting info about the galaxy. Amazing that quite a bit is known of such a small fuzzy thing when there are so many of them out there.....

[Stub Mandrel]

Excellent find!

I think I've found it in my image so I'm uploading it to Astrometry.net to see if it finds it.

Update: It is!

That's brilliant, many thanks! A good reminder to check all images for hidden gems!

[gorann]

Thanks! Glad to hear about your excitement!

31 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Excellent find!

I think I've found it in my image so I'm uploading it to Astrometry.net to see if it finds it.

Update: It is!

That's brilliant, many thanks! A good reminder to check all images for hidden gems!

 

[Allinthehead]

Nicely spotted Gorann.

[wimvb]

Nice catch Göran, and nice piece of detective work everyone. 279 Mly, quite a few dinosaurs have lived and died since the photons that were captured for this image, left home.

But of course, the real challenge is:

[gorann]

Could be another world full of intelligent life Wim, or just a star shrink artifact in Photoshop. Just hope we do not find ourselves living in a star shrink artifact.......

[gorann]

1 hour ago, Allinthehead said:

Nicely spotted Gorann.

Thank you!

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, wimvb said:

But of course, the real challenge is

Is there a hint of a curly tail on that star in my image?

 

[Demonperformer]

I have checked out CdC and there does not appear to be another (PGC) galaxy in that area. Looking at the 'tails' around the bright star in the top right,I think the double nature pattern looks quite similar, so I'm afraid I come down on the side of it's just an artifact, but would be happy to be proved wrong.

[gorann]

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Is there a hint of a curly tail on that star in my image?

 

There may be something there. Here is what my image looks like before any processing (except stretching)

[gorann]

However,

I may have spotted another galaxy in the image. It is at least a fuzzy of some kind. I have marked it with a fatter arrow, and it is present in the first version of the image (just stretched) as seen in the secons image below. In the third image I have done a round of HiPass filtering to make it stand out more. It is clearly of a different colour than the lighter parts of the nebulosity:

[Stub Mandrel]

Looks the part :-)

[DaveS]

We need an "anti-H alpha" notch filter to see through the nebula in the foreground. Guessing this was discovered visually as the nebula would be almost invisible to the eye.

[gorann]

9 minutes ago, DaveS said:

We need an "anti-H alpha" notch filter to see through the nebula in the foreground. Guessing this was discovered visually as the nebula would be almost invisible to the eye.

Great idea - such a filter should be possible and do the job, but I wonder if it exists.

[wimvb]

4 hours ago, gorann said:

However,

I may have spotted another galaxy in the image. It is at least a fuzzy of some kind. I have marked it with a fatter arrow, and it is present in the first version of the image (just stretched) as seen in the secons image below. In the third image I have done a round of HiPass filtering to make it stand out more. It is clearly of a different colour than the lighter parts of the nebulosity:

 

 

There is actually at least one more fuzzy. From the upper left corner, move along the top edge until the first bright star. From there, move up to the right (approx 2 o'clock position) to find a faint "smudge".

[tooth_dr]

Very interesting image and galaxy details. Thanks for sharing. 

[Demonperformer]

3 hours ago, DaveS said:

Guessing this was discovered visually as the nebula would be almost invisible to the eye.

Yes, using the 30" refractor at Nice Observatory. Catalogue de nebuleuses decouvertes avec le grand equatorial de l' Observatoire de Nice : (troisieme catalogue)..

[gorann]

4 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Yes, using the 30" refractor at Nice Observatory. Catalogue de nebuleuses decouvertes avec le grand equatorial de l' Observatoire de Nice : (troisieme catalogue)..

Interesting document - someone just sitting observing and noting all fuzzies he could see. I would probably loose interest after a while, but there has always been those liking to catalogue things...

[gorann]

7 hours ago, wimvb said:

There is actually at least one more fuzzy. From the upper left corner, move along the top edge until the first bright star. From there, move up to the right (approx 2 o'clock position) to find a faint "smudge".

Yes I see it Wim, but it is not in the nebula so it does not count

[Stub Mandrel]

7 minutes ago, gorann said:

Interesting document - someone just sitting observing and noting all fuzzies he could see. I would probably loose interest after a while, but there has always been those liking to catalogue things...

I suppose that when you know nearly every one you find has never been noticed by a human before it helps!

Plus you must get treated to some pretty decent views of things.