NGC 6872 in Pavo - the largest spiral in the sky, and 100 friends
The big daddy elliptical in the centre is NGC 6876, centre of a cluster of galaxies in south-eastern Pavo.
We were drawn to this rich cluster of galaxies because of the tidal stretching of the edge-on spiral NGC 6872, which is in the top left corner of the thumbnail.
Notice the intense star formation in the very blue spiral arms. The arm heading downward gets fainter and broader, and then hooks around to the right in a very faint blue club-like end. In our image, this club can be seen to be resolved into several small star-forming regions.
The salmon-pink centre shows a distinct bar, with what looks like a very tiny active nucleus.
Wikipedia says that it is interacting with IC4970, a small lenticular. We can indeed see what looks like a bridge of bright blue stars between the two.
Wiki says that tip to tip, 6872 is half a million light years across, or five times the size of the Milky Way. NASA says this colossus is the largest spiral in the sky. Some folk liken it to the shape of a condor, but condors are not radially symmetrical, so we think of it as more like a badly bent paper-clip.
The thumb is a crop on the most interesting part of the busy cluster of galaxies.
Great result guys, love this galaxy cluster, the Condor galaxy is so unusual in structure but magnificent and even more so when you learn its colossal size I was happy with my result from my (smaller) scope, your half metre aperture is rather useful though...have I ever mentioned that I would love your scope ...nice colour differentiation in the fine details too by the way
It's a cool group of galaxies MnT. The image scale is excellent and I really like the colour. Detail as you would expect for a 20" scope. Nice work.
Thanks Paul. We're trying to find the magic point where the colour saturation is strong enough to see astrophysically important differences without a fight, just as one would hope to see astrophysically important brightness differences, or differences in position, without a fight, but no stronger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Great result guys, love this galaxy cluster, the Condor galaxy is so unusual in structure but magnificent and even more so when you learn its colossal size I was happy with my result from my (smaller) scope, your half metre aperture is rather useful though...have I ever mentioned that I would love your scope ...nice colour differentiation in the fine details too by the way
Mike
Thanks hugely Mike. We're going to have to get you to come and stay over for a couple days some time soon. It's only a tiny four hour drive!