Abell 1656 - Coma Galaxy Cluster

[Hughsie]

With galaxy season upon us and the weather in the UK being so poor I had a rare clear night during a New Moon on 9th April 2024. With more poor weather being forecast I decided to get my 'galaxy fix' by photographing Abell 1656. This region of space contains over 1,000 identified galaxies so that ought to scratch that galaxy itch!

 

Equipment

• William Optics Z103 refractor.
• Main camera - ZWO ASI294MC Pro; Guide Camera ZWO ASI290mm mini.
• Chroma Luminance filter.
• Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount.
• Primaluce Lab Sesto Senso motor focuser.
• Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox V2.
• Pegasus Astro FlatMaster 150.

Software

• N.I.N.A.
• PHD2
• PixInsight.

Data

• Chroma Lum 161 x 120" (Gain 121, Temp. -10c, Bin 1x1)
• Darks 50
• Flats 30
• Dark Flats 30

Edited April 20 by Hughsie

[Paul M]

Superb!

[DaveS]

The Coma Cluster is a fabulous region and you've done it proud!

[Paul M]

As I often do with other's images, I took the liberty of downloading, solving and investigating this fine image, just to see what's there.

I expected there to be a few Quasars in there, so using ASTAP annotation filtered for QSO's, I got the result below. Rather a lot of them! 🤪 and it looks like you got a few pixels for many/most.

 

[Hughsie]

24 minutes ago, Paul M said:

As I often do with other's images, I took the liberty of downloading, solving and investigating this fine image, just to see what's there.

I expected there to be a few Quasars in there, so using ASTAP annotation filtered for QSO's, I got the result below. Rather a lot of them! 🤪 and it looks like you got a few pixels for many/most.

 

Thank you Paul. I ran the same in PixInsight using the TypeCat script and pulled out a lot of quasars. Currently, calculating the distances on a few to see if I’ve beaten my most distant object captured.