Deep Field Near Owl Nebula

[Rodd]

I was not thinking about galaxies when I was collecting the data for this image.  Well, that's not entirely true, I was thinking about M108, but thats about it.  It wasn't until much later that I realized the number of galaxies in the image was quite high.    What caught my eye, was the quai-gravitational lensingish appearance of the central star and background galaxues.  I know its not lensing--but it sure reminds me of lensing.  Anyway--just a bit of fun.  I lost count of the number of galaxies in this crop somewhere around 45--and this image was taken with a 4" refractor at F5.4 and a APS-C sized sensor (Televue np101is and STT-8300)--so this is a huge crop.  Forgive the background mottles--I took this image early in my career.....would that I could say that I don't produce mottled backgrounds any more!  I hope this image inspires the galaxy hounds among you.

 

[alan potts]

That must have been a nice surprise to find, there's a lot happening around that star. great shot, wonder what magnitude they are, not the same as M108 for sure.

Alan

[Rodd]

Thanks Alan.  What’s amazing is they may very well be 10x the magnitude of m108-just far away.  The universe is a endlessly fascinating speck in the sea of multiverses.  I find it very interesting that there is as far to go big as there is small. Which means we are at the mid point. 
Rodd