The Cobra and Mouse from Snake Valley

[barx1963]

The Cobra and the Mouse. Image acquired at home in Mt Duneed and a further session at Snake Valley Astro Camp last night. The main galaxy is NGC 2442 which lies about 50 million light years away in the constellation of Volans. The smaller galaxy to the right is ESO 59-11. The Cobra (NGC2442) appears about to strike the smaller Mouse (ESO 59-11). 2442 appears to have been distorted during an interation with the mouse. Taken with a ZWO ASI1600MM Cool camera through a Celestron EDGE HD 8" scope, Litecrawler focuser, on an Orion AZ/EQ G mount. Processed in Pixinsight. 29 Lum frames, 23 Red frames and 18 each of green and blue. All 5 minute subs so total of 7 hours 20 minutes of exposure. Looking carefully there are quite a lot of smaller galaxies around in the image.

[cometcatcher]

Delightful image! Lots of goodies in the background too.

[strongmanmike]

I like the way you have presented this Malcolm, it does look like a cobra :thumbsup:...The Cobra Galaxy sounds better than, the Meathook...

Mike

[Geoff45]

Nice composition Malcolm.

[Andy01]

Lovely Malcolm, your best yet I reckon- well done! :thumbsup:

[barx1963]

Thank Andy. Will have a go at cropping it a bit as you suggested.



Cheers Geoff



Thanks Mike. I found that name in "Imaging the Southern Sky" by Chadwick and Cooper. I was a little surprised how many people I showed this image to had not heard of this object though.



I was pretty happy with the background galaxies. Worth the effort when you see those pop out in the image.