M51.., and a peek back in time

[ShineOn]

This is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy….THE grand design spiral galaxy! Or more accurately it’s M51 and NGC 5195, as both galaxies are interacting with each other some 25 million light years distant, connected by a dusty tidal bridge.
Captured over several nights last week, I framed the image to include IC 4263, the galaxy in the top right corner.

Image details:

Luminance – 50 x 5 mins and 5 x 10 mins
Red – 18 x 5 mins
Green – 27 x 5 mins
Blue – 26 x 5 mins
Ha – 17 x 10 mins
With Skywatcher MN190 / Atik 460ex
Total image time: 13h 45mins
Guided with ZWO ASI 224 MC / phd2
Data captured with Sequence Generator Pro
Stacked with DSS
Aligned with Registar
Processed with PS CS5

Upon researching some of the faint fuzzies also captured, I came across reference to Quasar SDSS J133004.71+472301.0, located nearby.  Scanning my image I was very pleased to locate this object, which according to info on the web is very faint at Mag 20.3 and some 11.8 billion light years distant, making it the furthest object I have recorded.  The attached inverted luminance stack shows it up easiest….check your M51s!

Simon
 

Edited April 30, 2020 by ShineOn
text edit

[Swoop1]

Nice work Simon.

The 'Time Travel' aspect of what we do is something I love.

[geoflewis]

Simon, that's a great image and excellent research. You got me looking at my recent M51 image too and see that I also got it, so I then had a look at SIMBAD to confirm your identification 👌, but where did you get the distance information please?

[ShineOn]

42 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Simon, that's a great image and excellent research. You got me looking at my recent M51 image too and see that I also got it, so I then had a look at SIMBAD to confirm your identification 👌, but where did you get the distance information please?

Thanks Geof - yes I've seen it on your superb M51 too, much clearer in fact.  I googled it's catchy name and it threw up a couple of amateur sites having the distance as stated or similar.  The NED has it at 11.036 Gly http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/objsearch?objname=SDSS+J133004.71%2B472301.0&extend=no&hconst=73&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&out_csys=Equatorial&out_equinox=J2000.0&obj_sort=RA+or+Longitude&of=pre_text&zv_breaker=30000.0&list_limit=5&img_stamp=YES 

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, ShineOn said:

Thanks Geof - yes I've seen it on your superb M51 too, much clearer in fact.  I googled it's catchy name and it threw up a couple of amateur sites having the distance as stated or similar.  The NED has it at 11.036 Gly http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/objsearch?objname=SDSS+J133004.71%2B472301.0&extend=no&hconst=73&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&out_csys=Equatorial&out_equinox=J2000.0&obj_sort=RA+or+Longitude&of=pre_text&zv_breaker=30000.0&list_limit=5&img_stamp=YES 

Thanks Simon,

I found the NED site as a link from SIMBAD previously, but still didn't find the distance reference, but now see that value (11.036 Gly) listed as 'light travel time', so presumably that is what I needed to look at. That's strange terminology to me, but I guess LYs are a measure of time, as much as distance....!!

Cheers,

[alan potts]

A beautiful image you have captured there. I have a M/N 190mm maybe I should have a go with it, do you need any special extensions for the focuser, I still the original connection fitting, which I think is for a camera, I have two OSC's 183mc and a 071.

Alan

 

[tomato]

Great image and post, alas my most recent and deepest M51 didn’t quite have it in the FOV, something I will try for next time.

[ShineOn]

33 minutes ago, alan potts said:

A beautiful image you have captured there. I have a M/N 190mm maybe I should have a go with it, do you need any special extensions for the focuser, I still the original connection fitting, which I think is for a camera, I have two OSC's 183mc and a 071.

Alan

 

Thanks Alan - the best thing I did for my 190 was replace the stock focuser with a Moonlite - but the connection is still a standard nosepiece into the tube connected to my Atik EFW  

[alan potts]

18 minutes ago, ShineOn said:

Thanks Alan - the best thing I did for my 190 was replace the stock focuser with a Moonlite - but the connection is still a standard nosepiece into the tube connected to my Atik EFW  

I must give it a try, it was about my favourite visual scope and in my view gave close to APO views with quality eyepieces, it's just sitting in the observatory covered over, just got too many scopes and there is no real secondhand market out here.

Alan