Details

25 October 2024

Caldwell 67 (also known as NGC 1097) is a barred spiral galaxy; the bar is easily recognizable in the presented image. Also the companion galaxy NGC 1097a is visible in the image. It is a severely interacting galaxy with obvious tidal debris and distortions caused by interaction with the companion galaxy NGC 1097A.
The galaxy is about 45 million lightyears away in the constellation Fornax.
The distance estimates range from 45.6 to 57.7 million light years.

NGC 1097 has an exceptionally bright core and therefore belongs to the group of Seyfert galaxies (Type 1), which, together with quasars, are among the most active galaxies. The supermassive black hole in the center is fed by stars, gas and dust, which fall in spirals, are torn apart and heated up, forming an accretion disk around the black hole.

William Herschel was the first to encounter this galaxy on 9 October 1790 with his 18.7 inch reflector. He cataloged it as V 48 (class V = very large nebulae). He noted: "Very bright, extended 75°, north preceding, south following, 8' long. A very bright nucleus, confined to a small part, or about 1' diameter."

I scheduled 8 10 minute missions on the large 0,5 meter mirror telescope, Canary One. Processing was done in PixInsight.
I am pleased with the amount of detail visible in this galaxy for only 8 missions. That is the advantage of the large telescope (0,50 meter mirror) and 10 minute missions.

Click on the image to get a larger version

Details

24 October 2024

The biggest globular cluster in our Milky Way; it contains about 10 million stars with a total mass of about 4 million suns. According to a theory it is not a real globular cluster like the others but it could be the remnant of a disturbed dwarf galaxy. Whatever it is it is a great object to look at through a telescope and even better to look at this picture taken with the Chili One telescope.
It is the result of 9 missions, each 50sec Luminance and 25 seconds for each of the R, G and B channels. In total about 19 minutes exposure.
It is combined and processed in PixInsight.

Click on the image for a larger version