Astronomy

[owlice]

Ok, here is my new picture.  It was tough!  My most epic picture ever and the most technically challenging.  It grieves me to upload this as a very compressed image, but you do what you can do.


It might just look like a bunch of stars, but this contains an extremely distant cluster of galaxies!  500 million light years away and hundreds, maybe thousands of galaxies are here, some gravitationally bound.  Each one with a 100 million stars (or is it 100 billion, I forget?) but when I first started seeing the results, I was awe struck because I didn't exactly know what this was.  I like galaxy clusters but didn't know of this one.

This is a lovely image, and even a quick perusal of it shows lots of stuff going on way out there... some very intriguingly skewed galaxies, and in at least one place, maybe strong gravitational lensing.

[krummholz]

Ok, here is my new picture.  It was tough!  My most epic picture ever and the most technically challenging.  It grieves me to upload this as a very compressed image, but you do what you can do.


It might just look like a bunch of stars, but this contains an extremely distant cluster of galaxies!  500 million light years away and hundreds, maybe thousands of galaxies are here, some gravitationally bound.  Each one with a 100 million stars (or is it 100 billion, I forget?) but when I first started seeing the results, I was awe struck because I didn't exactly know what this was.  I like galaxy clusters but didn't know of this one.

You didn't identify the galaxy cluster - from the filename I guessed that it might be the Abell 2151 cluster in Hercules, but none of the stock pictures of that cluster really resemble yours too closely. In any case, your photo is awesome!

[relm1]

Thank you!  Yes, this is Abell 2151 Hercules Galaxy Cluster.  It took me some time to not call it Adele, that English singer who sings all those sad songs.  Yes, look for that distinctive "L" shaped galaxy, two different galaxies just top of center in this crop.  Here is mine to the left and one from NASA to the left but lined up.

[relm1]

This is a lovely image, and even a quick perusal of it shows lots of stuff going on way out there... some very intriguingly skewed galaxies, and in at least one place, maybe strong gravitational lensing.

Oh really?? Where is the lensing?  I didn't notice that and have always wanted to capture that but thought too distant.

[drogulus]

    Are you guys following 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar object detected on July 1, then traced back in earlier images to June 25? In December it will reach its closest point to Earth (~2.4AU).

    Oh, and Mr. Friend says hi. 

[LKB]

Are you guys following 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar object detected on July 1, then traced back in earlier images to June 25? In December it will reach its closest point to Earth (~2.4AU).

    Oh, and Mr. Friend says hi. 

That video made me chuckle, though the appearances of the outer planets at the end seemed a bit of overkill.

[drogulus]

That video made me chuckle, though the appearances of the outer planets at the end seemed a bit of overkill.

     I agree. They should stay in their lane.

[drogulus]

    3I/ATLAS is the largest interstellar object yet seen to travel through the solar system. Given it's velocity relative to the sun it won't be back.

[relm1]

For those of you interested, the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 lies 40 million light years away and just had a supernova.  The supernova was discovered only two weeks ago (SN 2025rbs cataloged July 14, 2025).  and will last a few more weeks.  Here is my picture of it from Monday this week pointing to the supernova.  For these few weeks, that single explosion is as bright as the rest of the galaxy!

Also interesting is this is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way and about the same size.  Our galaxy would look similar from there.  It is always interesting to wonder if someone over there is looking over here taking a picture of what they think is a twin to their spiral galaxy.  When that star exploded 40 million years ago, our ancestor looked closer to a tree dwelling squirrel.

[krummholz]

For those of you interested, the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 lies 40 million light years away and just had a supernova.  The supernova was discovered only two weeks ago (SN 2025rbs cataloged July 14, 2025).  and will last a few more weeks.  Here is my picture of it from Monday this week pointing to the supernova.  For these few weeks, that single explosion is as bright as the rest of the galaxy!

Also interesting is this is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way and about the same size.  Our galaxy would look similar from there.  It is always interesting to wonder if someone over there is looking over here taking a picture of what they think is a twin to their spiral galaxy.  When that star exploded 40 million years ago, our ancestor looked closer to a tree dwelling squirrel.

Interesting. Wikipedia gives the SN an apparent visual magnitude of 17.07, but at that distance (and given that it is a Type 1a) it should reach or have reached a peak magnitude of about 11.1, and thus have been easily visible in a medium-sized amateur telescope. What would you estimate was its magnitude in your picture?

Also, what equipment are you using? These pictures are really outstanding.

[LKB]

Another winner from relm1, which surprises me not at all.

Thank you sir. 

[Iota]

For those of you interested, the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 lies 40 million light years away and just had a supernova.  The supernova was discovered only two weeks ago (SN 2025rbs cataloged July 14, 2025).  and will last a few more weeks.  Here is my picture of it from Monday this week pointing to the supernova.  For these few weeks, that single explosion is as bright as the rest of the galaxy!


Also interesting is this is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way and about the same size.  Our galaxy would look similar from there.  It is always interesting to wonder if someone over there is looking over here taking a picture of what they think is a twin to their spiral galaxy.  When that star exploded 40 million years ago, our ancestor looked closer to a tree dwelling squirrel.

Spectacular, bravo!

[relm1]

Interesting. Wikipedia gives the SN an apparent visual magnitude of 17.07, but at that distance (and given that it is a Type 1a) it should reach or have reached a peak magnitude of about 11.1, and thus have been easily visible in a medium-sized amateur telescope. What would you estimate was its magnitude in your picture?

Also, what equipment are you using? These pictures are really outstanding.

Thanks @Iota and @LKB for the kind remarks!

@krummholz, Hmm, good point.  That visual magnitude of 17.07 might be when it was discovered a few weeks ago and has since brightened.  I'm not sure how long it takes to reach peak brightness.  NGC 7333 (the star below galaxy NGC 7331 as seen in my plate resolved image attached) is magnitude 15.1 and I'd say the supernova is at least that bright if not a tad brighter.  So maybe 14.5 when I took the picture.
By comparison, Pluto is the same (14.51).  This website (https://scopetrader.com/telescope-light-gathering-power-and-resolution/#:~:text=An%208-inch%20telescope%20can%20see%201024%20times%20fainter,naked%20eye%2C%20with%20a%20limiting%20magnitude%20of%2013.5.) says that you'd need a large scope of at least 16 inch diameter to see that dim but a 32 inch would only get you to magnitude 16.5 so I doubt it would be visible to the eye without a very large scope but I also know people with exceptional vision that I don't possess who might be able to see magnitude 15 with an 8 inch scope under ideal conditions. 

With a 16-inch reflector in pristine skies, I could barely see M-51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) which is considered one of the brighter galaxies at magnitude 9 to 10.5.  I could see the spiral, but it was at my visual limit.  I had to look away from it to visually detect it at all.

I did photograph and see the supernova in M101 from 2023 (or 2022?).  It was around the same magnitude of 14.9 and I think it was through a 22 inch scope.  I looked through lots of scopes that night so can't remember if the big amateur scope was 20 or 22 inches, definitely the largest amateur scope I'd ever looked through...you needed a ladder to reach the eye piece!  That supernova and galaxy were both barely visible from a high-altitude dark sky location but I don't have great eyesight so not sure if that applies to others.  M101 is magnitude 7.9 but much larger and I'm sure you know that brightness is spread across the entire area. 

As far as the gear, sadly I don't own this equipment.  It belongs to my astro club and they are allowing members to have access to it but only a handful of us are using it since it's complex.  I've discovered it to be a freaking BEAST of a scope...the best I've ever used and has completely blown me away!  I've only been using it for a few weeks and can't say enough good things about it.  It's a Takahasi TOA130 and ASI451MM sensor with ASI174MM guiding.  I didn't know much about it but discovered it's a freaking Rolls Royce!  Currently, very few members use it because it is complicated but I am frankly worried they'll start restricting access or charge to use it where I wouldn't be able to afford access since I'm broke.  It would be like downgrading from a Rolls Royce back to my tricycle.  I don't know if I can ever get access to gear this amazing again.☹

I've been doing astrophotography for the past three years and I've learned more in the past three weeks than I learned the past three years!  The sensor is very high end but monochrome (which I've never used before) so to achieve color, I have to take images in multiple wavelengths so there is so much more detail in each wavelength and all with perfect focus. 
The images I've posted are just a crop from the 37 gigs of imaging data.  My final processed image is 1 gigabyte which I then have to compress down to 1 meg (grrrr) which robs everyone of how detailed and beautiful the image really is.  I frankly have been brought to tears a few times with my jaw dropping seeing what all is there seeing things I've never seen before!  It is so beautiful, clean, such little noise, but it takes a lot of time and work to pull off.