Arp297 - Galaxy collisions

[alan4908]

Here's one you don't see often: - Arp297 which consists of four galaxies NGC5752, NGC5753, NGC5754 and NGC5755 all of which are located in Bootes.

NGC5754 and NGC5752 are approx 200 million light years distance whilst NGC5753 and NGC5755 are much further away, at approx 450million light years. The more distant galaxies don't appear to be interacting now, although the extended arms of NGC5755 indicate that an interaction may of occurred in the distant past. 

By contrast, a gravitational interaction of the closer two galaxies has produced an extremely long (275,000 light years) tidal tale which extends from the starburst galaxy NGC5752, which you can just about see this on the image below.  NGC5754 appears relatively unaffected by the collision. 

This LRGB image represents just over 11 hours integration and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

 

 

LIGHTS: L:29, R:12, G:16, B:11 x 600s. DARKS: 30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C. 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by alan4908

[ZiHao]

Great image. Especially the tidal tail, really is an interesting feature to see.

[Chris-A]

Wow, that's really nice. Not seen this before but I guess, being a summer object, it's tough to get many hours on it.

[DaveS]

Very interesting target, and well imaged.

Checking Stellarium, it should be possible to start imaging this from the second half of March through to the end of astro dark in mid May.

[alan4908]

18 hours ago, ZiHao said:

Great image. Especially the tidal tail, really is an interesting feature to see.

Thanks for the comment.  Yes, I agree about the tidal tale, I was a little surprised about the length ! 

 

14 hours ago, Chris-A said:

Wow, that's really nice. Not seen this before but I guess, being a summer object, it's tough to get many hours on it.

 Thanks   - yes, it took me quite a long time to acquire this, just below 7months.....

 

14 hours ago, DaveS said:

Very interesting target, and well imaged.

Checking Stellarium, it should be possible to start imaging this from the second half of March through to the end of astro dark in mid May.

Thanks - looking at my captured data my imaging started at 13th May and finished 5th December, so quite a long acquisition period which is not helped by the fact that I'm surround by trees which limits my local horizon. Since I have to dodge trees, certain phases of the moon and bad weather, I  just let ACP work out when to image it.  FYI, at my location gets to about 75 degrees at dark end. 

Alan