ASTRO: ABELL 0539 Galaxy Cluster

The Abell Galaxy Cluster is located in Orion, not a constellation you'd
look to for galaxy clusters. Some claim it looks like the constellation
of Orion itself. I see three galaxies in a line much like the belt
stars of Orion but they are vertical rather than nearly horizontal. To
make the rest of the constellation I have to include stars as well as
galaxies. Maybe you can see the similarity that I can't, but then I
don't see Jesus in burnt toast either.

The cluster is possibly made up of two clusters, one about 350 to 400
million light-years distant and another from 410 to 460 million
light-years away by redshift. It may be they are two groups at about
the same distance but with different mean recessional velocities. Like
with most galaxy clusters most members are elliptical or S0 galaxies,
likely due to chowing down on smaller members in the past. NED lists
the cluster as having a diameter of nearly 6 degrees. Obviously I can't
fit that in my 0.2 square degree field of view so I settled on just the
core region. It is classed as BM III which means it has no central
galaxy. But the center of the cluster does have UGC 3274 which is made
up of 6 galaxies. The three brightest make up the vertical "Belt" I
mentioned. I've noted the UGG 3274 members under their LEDA or PGC
designations on the annotated image as 6 galaxies with the same UGC
number gets confusing and adding NED01 or NED03 etc. to the UGC number
would not fit well in such tight quarters. One without redshift data is
from the VV catalog, which lists them as VV161 plus a letter, is shown
as VV161d as it had no LEDA or PGC designation that I found. Also while
Abell said it has no central galaxy I see NED indicates that LEDA 075312
is the Bright Cluster Galaxy and it is the center of the three bright
"belt" galaxies.

The portion of the cluster in my image has one entry from the Flat
Galaxy Catalog at the top as well as three others from the 2 Micron Flag
Galaxy Catalog. The latter has far less stringent requirements for
entry in the catalog so they aren't as flat as FGC 0528.

Seeing wasn't up to what I'd have liked but transparency was average
which, is excellent for how the year was (and is) going. Fortunately
there's not a lot of detail to be seen in S0 and elliptical galaxies.

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

Rick
--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

I did it again. Those were the pre punch files. I always process
rather flat then as a last step add some punch to the image. I somehow
put those in the wrong directory. After seeing what I posted I went
hunting for the right files. Trying again.

Rick
--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

Rick,

I guess this cluster makes up for most of the galaxy count of Orion :-)
There are some galaxies near the witchhead nebula, unfortunately this region
is very low for me. Even the belt of Orion only gets over my local horizon
after meridian.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
.com...

The Abell Galaxy Cluster is located in Orion, not a constellation you'd
look to for galaxy clusters. Some claim it looks like the constellation
of Orion itself. I see three galaxies in a line much like the belt
stars of Orion but they are vertical rather than nearly horizontal. To
make the rest of the constellation I have to include stars as well as
galaxies. Maybe you can see the similarity that I can't, but then I
don't see Jesus in burnt toast either.

The cluster is possibly made up of two clusters, one about 350 to 400
million light-years distant and another from 410 to 460 million
light-years away by redshift. It may be they are two groups at about
the same distance but with different mean recessional velocities. Like
with most galaxy clusters most members are elliptical or S0 galaxies,
likely due to chowing down on smaller members in the past. NED lists
the cluster as having a diameter of nearly 6 degrees. Obviously I can't
fit that in my 0.2 square degree field of view so I settled on just the
core region. It is classed as BM III which means it has no central
galaxy. But the center of the cluster does have UGC 3274 which is made
up of 6 galaxies. The three brightest make up the vertical "Belt" I
mentioned. I've noted the UGG 3274 members under their LEDA or PGC
designations on the annotated image as 6 galaxies with the same UGC
number gets confusing and adding NED01 or NED03 etc. to the UGC number
would not fit well in such tight quarters. One without redshift data is
from the VV catalog, which lists them as VV161 plus a letter, is shown
as VV161d as it had no LEDA or PGC designation that I found. Also while
Abell said it has no central galaxy I see NED indicates that LEDA 075312
is the Bright Cluster Galaxy and it is the center of the three bright
"belt" galaxies.

The portion of the cluster in my image has one entry from the Flat
Galaxy Catalog at the top as well as three others from the 2 Micron Flag
Galaxy Catalog. The latter has far less stringent requirements for
entry in the catalog so they aren't as flat as FGC 0528.

Seeing wasn't up to what I'd have liked but transparency was average
which, is excellent for how the year was (and is) going. Fortunately
there's not a lot of detail to be seen in S0 and elliptical galaxies.

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

Rick
--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net