ASTRO: NGC 5906

NGC 5906 is sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy". This was taken
through clouds with a half moon in the sky back in April. I only
managed 30 minutes of fuzzy luminosity data and one round of even
fuzzier color data the following night with even heavier clouds and a
brighter moon. So the image is rather noisy and very fuzzy. Maybe next
year the weather will cooperate as this galaxy has lots of fine detail
not even hinted at in this version. The main reason I'm running it at
all is that it also contains three galaxy clusters.

See the small image to locate these clusters. I see the circles are
hard to see, I drew them before reducing the image. Wrong!

The apparently closest cluster to the galaxy is [VPK96] C25. VPK stands
for Vogler+Pietsch+Kahabka which is a catalog of very blue or Xray
sources, in this case an Xray galaxy cluster. Few of the galaxies show
in visible light however. Only 4 members show in my image. I was
unable to find a distance to it. It must be full of very hot dust and
gas to be considered an Xray cluster.

The other two clusters are larger and far richer. Nearly directly below
the galaxy is NSC J151551+560911 at about 3.0 billion light years. It's
members look mostly like stars. The other cluster at the lower left is
NSC J151718+560754 and is only 1.3 billion light years distant. It's
larger galaxies do show some detail. NSC stands for Northern Sky
Optical Cluster, yet another catalog of galaxy clusters.

I wish the weather had allowed a sharper image as well as longer
exposure time as there appears to be a lot more detail I lost to the
conditions. Maybe I'll get back to it next year. However my list is so
long and so many unimaged targets beckon I'm not sure when I'll get to
it. Three polar orbiting satellites are obvious in the image. Though
two only cross the lower left corner the third is a real pain. With
only 3 frames a sigma reject routine wasn't useful and it went through
so many stars I didn't feel like cloning it out. I need to redo this
guy under better conditions in any case.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10' RGB=1x10' 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".

that came out great Rick

the galaxy clusters are most interesting, particularly when you consider
just how far away they are

nice image processing to pull that from the muck

rdc


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
. com...
NGC 5906 is sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy". This was taken
through clouds with a half moon in the sky back in April. I only
managed 30 minutes of fuzzy luminosity data and one round of even
fuzzier color data the following night with even heavier clouds and a
brighter moon. So the image is rather noisy and very fuzzy. Maybe next
year the weather will cooperate as this galaxy has lots of fine detail
not even hinted at in this version. The main reason I'm running it at
all is that it also contains three galaxy clusters.

See the small image to locate these clusters. I see the circles are
hard to see, I drew them before reducing the image. Wrong!

The apparently closest cluster to the galaxy is [VPK96] C25. VPK stands
for Vogler+Pietsch+Kahabka which is a catalog of very blue or Xray
sources, in this case an Xray galaxy cluster. Few of the galaxies show
in visible light however. Only 4 members show in my image. I was
unable to find a distance to it. It must be full of very hot dust and
gas to be considered an Xray cluster.

The other two clusters are larger and far richer. Nearly directly below
the galaxy is NSC J151551+560911 at about 3.0 billion light years. It's
members look mostly like stars. The other cluster at the lower left is
NSC J151718+560754 and is only 1.3 billion light years distant. It's
larger galaxies do show some detail. NSC stands for Northern Sky
Optical Cluster, yet another catalog of galaxy clusters.

I wish the weather had allowed a sharper image as well as longer
exposure time as there appears to be a lot more detail I lost to the
conditions. Maybe I'll get back to it next year. However my list is so
long and so many unimaged targets beckon I'm not sure when I'll get to
it. Three polar orbiting satellites are obvious in the image. Though
two only cross the lower left corner the third is a real pain. With
only 3 frames a sigma reject routine wasn't useful and it went through
so many stars I didn't feel like cloning it out. I need to redo this
guy under better conditions in any case.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10' RGB=1x10' 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".

Are You sure that isn't ngc 5907 instead of 06. Nice image anyway with the
galaxy clusters.


Joe


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
. com...
NGC 5906 is sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy". This was taken
through clouds with a half moon in the sky back in April. I only
managed 30 minutes of fuzzy luminosity data and one round of even
fuzzier color data the following night with even heavier clouds and a
brighter moon. So the image is rather noisy and very fuzzy. Maybe next
year the weather will cooperate as this galaxy has lots of fine detail
not even hinted at in this version. The main reason I'm running it at
all is that it also contains three galaxy clusters.

See the small image to locate these clusters. I see the circles are
hard to see, I drew them before reducing the image. Wrong!

The apparently closest cluster to the galaxy is [VPK96] C25. VPK stands
for Vogler+Pietsch+Kahabka which is a catalog of very blue or Xray
sources, in this case an Xray galaxy cluster. Few of the galaxies show
in visible light however. Only 4 members show in my image. I was
unable to find a distance to it. It must be full of very hot dust and
gas to be considered an Xray cluster.

The other two clusters are larger and far richer. Nearly directly below
the galaxy is NSC J151551+560911 at about 3.0 billion light years. It's
members look mostly like stars. The other cluster at the lower left is
NSC J151718+560754 and is only 1.3 billion light years distant. It's
larger galaxies do show some detail. NSC stands for Northern Sky
Optical Cluster, yet another catalog of galaxy clusters.

I wish the weather had allowed a sharper image as well as longer
exposure time as there appears to be a lot more detail I lost to the
conditions. Maybe I'll get back to it next year. However my list is so
long and so many unimaged targets beckon I'm not sure when I'll get to
it. Three polar orbiting satellites are obvious in the image. Though
two only cross the lower left corner the third is a real pain. With
only 3 frames a sigma reject routine wasn't useful and it went through
so many stars I didn't feel like cloning it out. I need to redo this
guy under better conditions in any case.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10' RGB=1x10' 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".



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Actually it is both. Some sources consider 5907 the galaxy and 5906 a
star cloud between the star seen against the galaxy right of the nucleus
and the nucleus itself. Its such a minor thing to be an NGC object I've
always considered both numbers to apply. The NGC project agrees with
you. I normally go with that. The Sky however reversed things. My
brain always considered them the same so that's how it ended up. I was
thinking of changing it before posting to read NGC5906/7 then didn't.
Either designation gets you to this spot in the sky.

Rick

J McBride wrote:

Are You sure that isn't ngc 5907 instead of 06. Nice image anyway with the
galaxy clusters.


Joe


"Rick Johnson" wrote in message
. com...

NGC 5906 is sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy". This was taken
through clouds with a half moon in the sky back in April. I only
managed 30 minutes of fuzzy luminosity data and one round of even
fuzzier color data the following night with even heavier clouds and a
brighter moon. So the image is rather noisy and very fuzzy. Maybe next
year the weather will cooperate as this galaxy has lots of fine detail
not even hinted at in this version. The main reason I'm running it at
all is that it also contains three galaxy clusters.

See the small image to locate these clusters. I see the circles are
hard to see, I drew them before reducing the image. Wrong!

The apparently closest cluster to the galaxy is [VPK96] C25. VPK stands
for Vogler+Pietsch+Kahabka which is a catalog of very blue or Xray
sources, in this case an Xray galaxy cluster. Few of the galaxies show
in visible light however. Only 4 members show in my image. I was
unable to find a distance to it. It must be full of very hot dust and
gas to be considered an Xray cluster.

The other two clusters are larger and far richer. Nearly directly below
the galaxy is NSC J151551+560911 at about 3.0 billion light years. It's
members look mostly like stars. The other cluster at the lower left is
NSC J151718+560754 and is only 1.3 billion light years distant. It's
larger galaxies do show some detail. NSC stands for Northern Sky
Optical Cluster, yet another catalog of galaxy clusters.

I wish the weather had allowed a sharper image as well as longer
exposure time as there appears to be a lot more detail I lost to the
conditions. Maybe I'll get back to it next year. However my list is so
long and so many unimaged targets beckon I'm not sure when I'll get to
it. Three polar orbiting satellites are obvious in the image. Though
two only cross the lower left corner the third is a real pain. With
only 3 frames a sigma reject routine wasn't useful and it went through
so many stars I didn't feel like cloning it out. I need to redo this
guy under better conditions in any case.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10' RGB=1x10' 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".




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----






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----






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

Nice job Rick!

Rick Johnson wrote:
NGC 5906 is sometimes known as the "Splinter Galaxy". This was taken
through clouds with a half moon in the sky back in April. I only
managed 30 minutes of fuzzy luminosity data and one round of even
fuzzier color data the following night with even heavier clouds and a
brighter moon. So the image is rather noisy and very fuzzy. Maybe next
year the weather will cooperate as this galaxy has lots of fine detail
not even hinted at in this version. The main reason I'm running it at
all is that it also contains three galaxy clusters.

See the small image to locate these clusters. I see the circles are
hard to see, I drew them before reducing the image. Wrong!

The apparently closest cluster to the galaxy is [VPK96] C25. VPK stands
for Vogler+Pietsch+Kahabka which is a catalog of very blue or Xray
sources, in this case an Xray galaxy cluster. Few of the galaxies show
in visible light however. Only 4 members show in my image. I was
unable to find a distance to it. It must be full of very hot dust and
gas to be considered an Xray cluster.

The other two clusters are larger and far richer. Nearly directly below
the galaxy is NSC J151551+560911 at about 3.0 billion light years. It's
members look mostly like stars. The other cluster at the lower left is
NSC J151718+560754 and is only 1.3 billion light years distant. It's
larger galaxies do show some detail. NSC stands for Northern Sky
Optical Cluster, yet another catalog of galaxy clusters.

I wish the weather had allowed a sharper image as well as longer
exposure time as there appears to be a lot more detail I lost to the
conditions. Maybe I'll get back to it next year. However my list is so
long and so many unimaged targets beckon I'm not sure when I'll get to
it. Three polar orbiting satellites are obvious in the image. Though
two only cross the lower left corner the third is a real pain. With
only 3 frames a sigma reject routine wasn't useful and it went through
so many stars I didn't feel like cloning it out. I need to redo this
guy under better conditions in any case.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10' RGB=1x10' binned 3x3, STL=11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick

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--
John N. Gretchen III
N5JNG NCS304
http://www.tisd.net/~jng3