Coma Cluster

[dph1nm]

This is a ~1hr shot (45sec subs) of the Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) taken with an unmodded Canon1000D on an 8.5" F6 Newtonian. I have lots of light pollution - I always use a Skywatcher LPR filter.

The Coma cluster is richest 'local' galaxy cluster, and has several thousand members. It also just happens to be a cluster I studied for my thesis, many years ago! In those days we used 1 hour photographic plates from the Palomar 48" Schmidt, and studied them using a light box and a microscope. I can't claim this is as deep, but here is the same Canon1000D shot, but in inverted greyscale and now with the NGC and IC galaxies labelled:

The faintest galaxies visible have an blue mag of about 18.

NigelM

[gremlin]

Good job Nigel. Love the annotated version. It really adds meaning to the shot.

[pulsar pete]

Many thanks for posting. The annotated negative is particularly informative. My next target unguided target I think

Peter