ASTRO: A loony galaxy?

Normally I post my images with north up but this one looks "better" with
south up. It is NGC 3239 or Arp 263 located about 50 million light
years away. Seeing it reminded me of the Minnesota state bird the Loon.
They have returned even with the lake still mostly ice covered. For a
while they had no take off room as they need about 100 yards to get into
the air. They fly like fighters. Very fast. Their stall speed is very
high so they need lots of speed to take off. I was in a slow boat once
when one started taking off a good 200 yards away. It was obvious our
boat (doing about 10 mph top speed) would be at about the crossing point
the same time as the loon got there but by then it should be well into
the air. I forgot that without a wind they can't gain altitude but very
slowly. Even though the bow of the boat was less than 2 feet above the
water it whammed into it at about 40 mph. Put a heck of a dent in the
aluminum. Loon bounced off. I expected his beak to be plastered all
over his face but he must have turned his head in time. He seemed dazed
but survived. Loons have a very red eye and a white neck band. The
galaxy seems to have the same in about the right places. Even the white
breast seems represented.

The blue spiral down and to the right shows a red shift of 260 million
light years. The rest that I was able to find data on are about 600
million light years per their red shift data.

The asteroid east of NGC 3239 is (79884) 1999 AP6 at magnitude 18.8

For those that don't know what a loon looks like I've posted a shot of a
pair with their 3 day old young taken last year on the lake. They
weren't happy with me.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10' binned 3x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

I like that one a lot Rick... Is the lake open for the loons yet? I know
you mentioned that they might have some trouble taking off earlier.

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com

Doug W. wrote:

I like that one a lot Rick... Is the lake open for the loons yet? I know
you mentioned that they might have some trouble taking off earlier.

It's trying to open. The ice is moving such they didn't get trapped.
Last year some got crushed to death because the ice moved north
eliminating their open water before enough opened they could take off.
This year it moved south. Which was good as the last snow storm was
severe and forced them to leave. Without the opening that gave they'd
not have been able to leave. Once the snow from that storm melted we
found lots of dead 4 legged critters and migratory birds (Myrtle
warblers took a big hit) that were caught in it, mostly last years young
who weren't smart enough to know what to do when it hit. Young coons
really took a hit. I'm still finding dead ones daily around the house
as the thaw is causing quite a stink you might say.

Loons have now returned but a good third of the lake is ice free as are
most of their nesting areas. We put out about 20 loon nesting platforms
but the access is still blocked by ice and we can't get them out. Loons
are nesting on shore which usually is disaster for the nest as skunks,
coons, fox, wolves and coyotes can reach them and have a nice egg
breakfast. First time in 20 years we've been unable to get the
platforms out in time. Most will renest and may move to the platforms
so we'll still put them out. Maybe tomorrow the ice will leave enough
we can get at least some of them in one end of the lake.

Rick

--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

What a great picture. This object immediately got on my list. I don't think
I'll manage to image it this year, but certainly next year.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news
Normally I post my images with north up but this one looks "better" with
south up. It is NGC 3239 or Arp 263 located about 50 million light
years away. Seeing it reminded me of the Minnesota state bird the Loon.
They have returned even with the lake still mostly ice covered. For a
while they had no take off room as they need about 100 yards to get into
the air. They fly like fighters. Very fast. Their stall speed is very
high so they need lots of speed to take off. I was in a slow boat once
when one started taking off a good 200 yards away. It was obvious our
boat (doing about 10 mph top speed) would be at about the crossing point
the same time as the loon got there but by then it should be well into
the air. I forgot that without a wind they can't gain altitude but very
slowly. Even though the bow of the boat was less than 2 feet above the
water it whammed into it at about 40 mph. Put a heck of a dent in the
aluminum. Loon bounced off. I expected his beak to be plastered all
over his face but he must have turned his head in time. He seemed dazed
but survived. Loons have a very red eye and a white neck band. The
galaxy seems to have the same in about the right places. Even the white
breast seems represented.

The blue spiral down and to the right shows a red shift of 260 million
light years. The rest that I was able to find data on are about 600
million light years per their red shift data.

The asteroid east of NGC 3239 is (79884) 1999 AP6 at magnitude 18.8

For those that don't know what a loon looks like I've posted a shot of a
pair with their 3 day old young taken last year on the lake. They
weren't happy with me.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10' binned 3x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount
ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Wow, that is very cool Rick!

There are way too many galaxies for me to image this season. I guess I will
have to dedicate the spring of 2009 to more of them assuming I make it to
then...



"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
news
Normally I post my images with north up but this one looks "better" with
south up. It is NGC 3239 or Arp 263 located about 50 million light
years away. Seeing it reminded me of the Minnesota state bird the Loon.
They have returned even with the lake still mostly ice covered. For a
while they had no take off room as they need about 100 yards to get into
the air. They fly like fighters. Very fast. Their stall speed is very
high so they need lots of speed to take off. I was in a slow boat once
when one started taking off a good 200 yards away. It was obvious our
boat (doing about 10 mph top speed) would be at about the crossing point
the same time as the loon got there but by then it should be well into
the air. I forgot that without a wind they can't gain altitude but very
slowly. Even though the bow of the boat was less than 2 feet above the
water it whammed into it at about 40 mph. Put a heck of a dent in the
aluminum. Loon bounced off. I expected his beak to be plastered all
over his face but he must have turned his head in time. He seemed dazed
but survived. Loons have a very red eye and a white neck band. The
galaxy seems to have the same in about the right places. Even the white
breast seems represented.

The blue spiral down and to the right shows a red shift of 260 million
light years. The rest that I was able to find data on are about 600
million light years per their red shift data.

The asteroid east of NGC 3239 is (79884) 1999 AP6 at magnitude 18.8

For those that don't know what a loon looks like I've posted a shot of a
pair with their 3 day old young taken last year on the lake. They
weren't happy with me.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10' binned 3x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount
ME

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".