ASTRO: Abell 1368

This is a large and bright cluster in Leo. It is far larger than my
FOV. I'd need 6 shots to cover it all. I picked what looked like the
most interesting area for my scope.

This group is located about 300 million light years away though
individual galaxies show a red shift distance ranging from 260 to 340
million light years and one, NGC 3861, the big spiral to the left is
only about 240 million light years away. So it may be a distant
relation or just passing by, it's hard to tell. Right beside it is
MCG+03-30-094 which at 345 million light years is a bit farther from the
group than the others. So it, like its apparent neighbor is
questionable at the other end of the distance scale. To the upper left
of this pair is the double galaxy CGCG097-133. They are obviously an
interacting pair but at 641 and 655 million light years per NED they are
not members of this group. Oddly, NED puts the redshift of the pair at
only 248 million light years. This must have been calculated by that
famous Chinese astronomer Sum-Ting Wong.

The very odd blue streak of a galaxy to the right is UGC 06697, how it
missed being on Arp's list of peculiar galaxies I don't know.

A finder chart of the NGC objects in the area of UGC 06697 is at:
http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/3/n3845.jpg

In the small image I've marked two quasars in the area of NGC 3842. The
one to the lower left, [hb89]1141+202 NED02 is the most distant one I've
imaged.

This quasar is listed at magnitude 21 and has a redshift of z=2.2. When
the light left it 10.3 billion years ago our galaxy was just starting to
form.

Thanks to the expansion of the universe it is "now" about 17 billion
light years away and thus beyond the "edge" of the observable universe.
We'll never see the light it is currently emitting, if it still is
active that is. THe light of the other quasar left about 3.6 billion
years ago so we see it at a much later time.

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".

Rick

I've always enjoyed Galaxy Clusters. Both at the Eyepiece and as
Images and you've shared a Great Image. Thanks

Crazy Ed

Nice shot there Rick... Interesting about the quasars.

--
Regards, Doug W.
www.photonsfate.com
"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
...
This is a large and bright cluster in Leo. It is far larger than my
FOV. I'd need 6 shots to cover it all. I picked what looked like the
most interesting area for my scope.

This group is located about 300 million light years away though
individual galaxies show a red shift distance ranging from 260 to 340
million light years and one, NGC 3861, the big spiral to the left is
only about 240 million light years away. So it may be a distant
relation or just passing by, it's hard to tell. Right beside it is
MCG+03-30-094 which at 345 million light years is a bit farther from the
group than the others. So it, like its apparent neighbor is
questionable at the other end of the distance scale. To the upper left
of this pair is the double galaxy CGCG097-133. They are obviously an
interacting pair but at 641 and 655 million light years per NED they are
not members of this group. Oddly, NED puts the redshift of the pair at
only 248 million light years. This must have been calculated by that
famous Chinese astronomer Sum-Ting Wong.

The very odd blue streak of a galaxy to the right is UGC 06697, how it
missed being on Arp's list of peculiar galaxies I don't know.

A finder chart of the NGC objects in the area of UGC 06697 is at:
http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/3/n3845.jpg

In the small image I've marked two quasars in the area of NGC 3842. The
one to the lower left, [hb89]1141+202 NED02 is the most distant one I've
imaged.

This quasar is listed at magnitude 21 and has a redshift of z=2.2. When
the light left it 10.3 billion years ago our galaxy was just starting to
form.

Thanks to the expansion of the universe it is "now" about 17 billion
light years away and thus beyond the "edge" of the observable universe.
We'll never see the light it is currently emitting, if it still is
active that is. THe light of the other quasar left about 3.6 billion
years ago so we see it at a much later time.

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".

Rick,

again you managed to show a lot of detail in what would be "faint fuzzies"
in images with less resolution. Great picture.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
This is a large and bright cluster in Leo. It is far larger than my
FOV. I'd need 6 shots to cover it all. I picked what looked like the
most interesting area for my scope.

This group is located about 300 million light years away though
individual galaxies show a red shift distance ranging from 260 to 340
million light years and one, NGC 3861, the big spiral to the left is
only about 240 million light years away. So it may be a distant
relation or just passing by, it's hard to tell. Right beside it is
MCG+03-30-094 which at 345 million light years is a bit farther from the
group than the others. So it, like its apparent neighbor is
questionable at the other end of the distance scale. To the upper left
of this pair is the double galaxy CGCG097-133. They are obviously an
interacting pair but at 641 and 655 million light years per NED they are
not members of this group. Oddly, NED puts the redshift of the pair at
only 248 million light years. This must have been calculated by that
famous Chinese astronomer Sum-Ting Wong.

The very odd blue streak of a galaxy to the right is UGC 06697, how it
missed being on Arp's list of peculiar galaxies I don't know.

A finder chart of the NGC objects in the area of UGC 06697 is at:
http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/3/n3845.jpg

In the small image I've marked two quasars in the area of NGC 3842. The
one to the lower left, [hb89]1141+202 NED02 is the most distant one I've
imaged.

This quasar is listed at magnitude 21 and has a redshift of z=2.2. When
the light left it 10.3 billion years ago our galaxy was just starting to
form.

Thanks to the expansion of the universe it is "now" about 17 billion
light years away and thus beyond the "edge" of the observable universe.
We'll never see the light it is currently emitting, if it still is
active that is. THe light of the other quasar left about 3.6 billion
years ago so we see it at a much later time.

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".

"Rick Johnson" wrote
....
This is a large and bright cluster in Leo........

Looks familiar...... I must have imaged a SN in that group at some time!

This image certainly has wonderful resolution!!

........ Oddly, NED puts the redshift of the pair at
only 248 million light years.

Those red-shift based distances are only approximations because galaxies in
clusters can have pretty large orbital motions within the cluster that can
distort the cosmological red shift. However, if the number is purely
cosmological, then they are not in the group. On large red shift based 3D
plots of galaxies these distortions and other errors results in "the fingers
of God effect" wherein the galaxies seem to line up in groups all pointing
at Earth. It's just an error effect (or so we hope!!)

.........
The very odd blue streak of a galaxy to the right is UGC 06697, how it
missed being on Arp's list of peculiar galaxies I don't know.
...........

I believe he was using the red Palomar plates and inspecting them all
visually. Maybe this galaxy does not show well on the red plate, or Arp was
half asleep when reviewing all those splotches in Leo!

George N