Siamese Twins NGC-4567 and 4568

[qcdougn]

Here's a redo of the twins from last winter...Sorry, but skies are still hazy and all I can do is play with some old images. This was taken with the LX-90 @f6.3 and Canon XT. It's a very small target for a DSLR. So, it was cropped and enlarged approx. 250%. I did manage to catch a little detail after-all.

"NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 (nicknamed the Siamese Twins or the Butterfly Galaxies) are a set of spiral galaxies about 120 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. They were both discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1784. They are part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Only one supernova (SN 2004cc) was observed in the Siamese Twins.

These galaxies are in the process of colliding and merging with each other. They were named "Siamese Twins" because they look like they're connected."

Doug

[CELESCOPE]

Now they are hard to get Doug, very good indeed ,i must say that you get some amazing results from the canon , excellent stuff .yes enjoyed the call Doug , 60 cents only ehehheheh

Rog

[moondog]

Another excellent image Doug - a difficult object .

Keep up the 're-do's'.

Having the Canon myself I like to see what it can do - if used properly!

8)

MD

[geppetto]

Lovely image Doug

A lot of detail in that 8)

[OXO]

Thats a great image Doug and nice info to your post

[MartinB]

Excellent Doug. They are very small so you have done really well to get so much detail

[The Warthog]

Very, very nice. What would it take to see them visually?

[Caz]

Thats a superb image! 8) They look very close together, just how far apart are these 2 galaxy's?

[qcdougn]

Thanks Caz and all,

Here's some info. from the web....

"they both have nearly the same red shift they may well be very close or in actual contract. However, other than a dim general x-ray glow involving both galaxies there is no indication of interaction. Neither galaxy is distorted nor are there any tidal tails. If they are in contract their orbital dynamics is such that they have not become distorted. Based on their red shifts they are roughly 120 million light years away (Hubble Constant of 62 Km per sec., per Megaparsec) and at that distance the projected distance between their nuclei is only 45,200 light years."

Warthog: Based on the size and magnitudes, I would think you would need approx. 150X and a resonable sized - "light bucket " and a dark site.

Doug

[FLO]

Very nice Doug 8)

Inspiring too, particularly as you have produced this image with 'regular' kit - Meade LX90 and Canon DSLR.