ASTRO: NGC 2841 A flocculent galaxy

NGC 2871 is a flocculent galaxy in Ursa Major that reminds me of M63
with its tufts of star clouds rather than defined arms. The distance to
this one is rather vague. I've seen estimates from 45 to 80 million
light years. Red shift and Cepheid measurements favor the shorter
estimate while Tulley-Fisher measurements and a type 1a super nova
estimate put it further away. Considering large earth based scopes have
resolved a few stars in it I'd favor the shorter estimates. Hubble
easily resolves it into stars. Though there's no published Hubble
image, you can see some good examples at the Hubble Legacy Archive.

NED classes it a SA(r)b:;LINER Sy1 indicating it has a very active
nucleus. The NGC project takes the simple route with Sb I as its
classification.

While the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies has been my main target of late
I'm also working on the objects in the Astronomical League's Herschel
400 list from the early 80's. This was one of the nicer ones in that
list. One that deserves more attention than most astrophotographers
give it.

The eastern (left) side appears to be the side closest to us. The
flocculent nature of the west side is somewhat hidden by what appears to
be a gauze of halo stars. Though after a pass through the high pass
filter this difference was greatly reduced.

There are a lot of background galaxies so I prepared an annotated
version. One object is considered a quasar in some catalogs and a just
a galaxy with a strong AGN by another. Looking at the PSF in my image
it is that of an extended object rather than a point source so it
appears I'm picking up some of the galaxy the quasar is in. Not all
that common but considering it is only about 2.44 billion light years
distant not surprising. It is labeled as Q/G in the annotated image
since more catalogs say quasar than galaxy.

The brightest background galaxy in the image is CGCG 265-009. I found
no attempt to classify this odd blue galaxy. It looks like a two armed
barred spiral with lots of disconnected star clouds in the disk
unrelated to the arms. It would seem to fit somewhere in Arp's atlas of
peculiar galaxies.ASTRO: NGC 2841 A flocculent galaxy

The Sloan image of NGC 2841 is at:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-19/NGC2841.php
It doesn't show the flocculent nature very well, probably because of its
heavy weighting toward IR light. The dark line is the gap between the
CCDs that make up its imaging array.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', RGB=2x10'x3, 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 imaged this one in 2005 and overexeposed the core when processing.
Need to revisit (so many galaxies, so little time).

Last evening was prefect but unfortunately house was filled with
family, in-laws and out-laws so all I could do was cast wistul glances
towards the western sky as the soon slowly set silhouetting the
costal range in sharp detail. Oh well, forecast indicates a chance for
clear skys next Tuesday.



On Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:36:30 -0600, Rick Johnson
wrote:

NGC 2871 is a flocculent galaxy in Ursa Major that reminds me of M63
with its tufts of star clouds rather than defined arms. The distance to
this one is rather vague. I've seen estimates from 45 to 80 million
light years. Red shift and Cepheid measurements favor the shorter
estimate while Tulley-Fisher measurements and a type 1a super nova
estimate put it further away. Considering large earth based scopes have
resolved a few stars in it I'd favor the shorter estimates. Hubble
easily resolves it into stars. Though there's no published Hubble
image, you can see some good examples at the Hubble Legacy Archive.

NED classes it a SA(r)b:;LINER Sy1 indicating it has a very active
nucleus. The NGC project takes the simple route with Sb I as its
classification.

While the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies has been my main target of late
I'm also working on the objects in the Astronomical League's Herschel
400 list from the early 80's. This was one of the nicer ones in that
list. One that deserves more attention than most astrophotographers
give it.

The eastern (left) side appears to be the side closest to us. The
flocculent nature of the west side is somewhat hidden by what appears to
be a gauze of halo stars. Though after a pass through the high pass
filter this difference was greatly reduced.

There are a lot of background galaxies so I prepared an annotated
version. One object is considered a quasar in some catalogs and a just
a galaxy with a strong AGN by another. Looking at the PSF in my image
it is that of an extended object rather than a point source so it
appears I'm picking up some of the galaxy the quasar is in. Not all
that common but considering it is only about 2.44 billion light years
distant not surprising. It is labeled as Q/G in the annotated image
since more catalogs say quasar than galaxy.

The brightest background galaxy in the image is CGCG 265-009. I found
no attempt to classify this odd blue galaxy. It looks like a two armed
barred spiral with lots of disconnected star clouds in the disk
unrelated to the arms. It would seem to fit somewhere in Arp's atlas of
peculiar galaxies.ASTRO: NGC 2841 A flocculent galaxy

The Sloan image of NGC 2841 is at:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-19/NGC2841.php
It doesn't show the flocculent nature very well, probably because of its
heavy weighting toward IR light. The dark line is the gap between the
CCDs that make up its imaging array.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick

Moonrise would soon have put an end to it anyway. Snow here.

Of course when you automated I just have to get away long enough to hit
the button to open the roof. Then two hours later when it is dark I just
start the imaging script running and go back to dinner or whatever.

Spent the afternoon clearing drifting snow off the one km drive out to a
township road (which has drifted shut thanks to their not spending any
money to clear it. I may end up doing 3 more km of snow blowing.

Rick

On 11/26/2010 3:06 PM, glen youman wrote:
I imaged this one in 2005 and overexeposed the core when processing.
Need to revisit (so many galaxies, so little time).

Last evening was prefect but unfortunately house was filled with
family, in-laws and out-laws so all I could do was cast wistul glances
towards the western sky as the soon slowly set silhouetting the
costal range in sharp detail. Oh well, forecast indicates a chance for
clear skys next Tuesday.



On Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:36:30 -0600, Rick
wrote:

NGC 2871 is a flocculent galaxy in Ursa Major that reminds me of M63
with its tufts of star clouds rather than defined arms. The distance to
this one is rather vague. I've seen estimates from 45 to 80 million
light years. Red shift and Cepheid measurements favor the shorter
estimate while Tulley-Fisher measurements and a type 1a super nova
estimate put it further away. Considering large earth based scopes have
resolved a few stars in it I'd favor the shorter estimates. Hubble
easily resolves it into stars. Though there's no published Hubble
image, you can see some good examples at the Hubble Legacy Archive.

NED classes it a SA(r)b:;LINER Sy1 indicating it has a very active
nucleus. The NGC project takes the simple route with Sb I as its
classification.

While the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies has been my main target of late
I'm also working on the objects in the Astronomical League's Herschel
400 list from the early 80's. This was one of the nicer ones in that
list. One that deserves more attention than most astrophotographers
give it.

The eastern (left) side appears to be the side closest to us. The
flocculent nature of the west side is somewhat hidden by what appears to
be a gauze of halo stars. Though after a pass through the high pass
filter this difference was greatly reduced.

There are a lot of background galaxies so I prepared an annotated
version. One object is considered a quasar in some catalogs and a just
a galaxy with a strong AGN by another. Looking at the PSF in my image
it is that of an extended object rather than a point source so it
appears I'm picking up some of the galaxy the quasar is in. Not all
that common but considering it is only about 2.44 billion light years
distant not surprising. It is labeled as Q/G in the annotated image
since more catalogs say quasar than galaxy.

The brightest background galaxy in the image is CGCG 265-009. I found
no attempt to classify this odd blue galaxy. It looks like a two armed
barred spiral with lots of disconnected star clouds in the disk
unrelated to the arms. It would seem to fit somewhere in Arp's atlas of
peculiar galaxies.ASTRO: NGC 2841 A flocculent galaxy

The Sloan image of NGC 2841 is at:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-19/NGC2841.php
It doesn't show the flocculent nature very well, probably because of its
heavy weighting toward IR light. The dark line is the gap between the
CCDs that make up its imaging array.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', RGB=2x10'x3, 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".

Excellent picture Rick. It is very difficult to achieve the level of detail
of your image. In bad seeing this galaxy can look quite boring...

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ster.com...
NGC 2871 is a flocculent galaxy in Ursa Major that reminds me of M63
with its tufts of star clouds rather than defined arms. The distance to
this one is rather vague. I've seen estimates from 45 to 80 million
light years. Red shift and Cepheid measurements favor the shorter
estimate while Tulley-Fisher measurements and a type 1a super nova
estimate put it further away. Considering large earth based scopes have
resolved a few stars in it I'd favor the shorter estimates. Hubble
easily resolves it into stars. Though there's no published Hubble
image, you can see some good examples at the Hubble Legacy Archive.

NED classes it a SA(r)b:;LINER Sy1 indicating it has a very active
nucleus. The NGC project takes the simple route with Sb I as its
classification.

While the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies has been my main target of late
I'm also working on the objects in the Astronomical League's Herschel
400 list from the early 80's. This was one of the nicer ones in that
list. One that deserves more attention than most astrophotographers
give it.

The eastern (left) side appears to be the side closest to us. The
flocculent nature of the west side is somewhat hidden by what appears to
be a gauze of halo stars. Though after a pass through the high pass
filter this difference was greatly reduced.

There are a lot of background galaxies so I prepared an annotated
version. One object is considered a quasar in some catalogs and a just
a galaxy with a strong AGN by another. Looking at the PSF in my image
it is that of an extended object rather than a point source so it
appears I'm picking up some of the galaxy the quasar is in. Not all
that common but considering it is only about 2.44 billion light years
distant not surprising. It is labeled as Q/G in the annotated image
since more catalogs say quasar than galaxy.

The brightest background galaxy in the image is CGCG 265-009. I found
no attempt to classify this odd blue galaxy. It looks like a two armed
barred spiral with lots of disconnected star clouds in the disk
unrelated to the arms. It would seem to fit somewhere in Arp's atlas of
peculiar galaxies.ASTRO: NGC 2841 A flocculent galaxy

The Sloan image of NGC 2841 is at:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-19/NGC2841.php
It doesn't show the flocculent nature very well, probably because of its
heavy weighting toward IR light. The dark line is the gap between the
CCDs that make up its imaging array.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', RGB=2x10'x3, 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".