Antennae 24 hrs

[Placidus]

The Antennae are a pair of faint (mag 11.0, SB 13.7) galaxies (NGC 4038, 4039) heavily interacting galaxies on the Corvus-Crater border.

Big One Here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-xB539Cb/0/fe40b219/O/Antennae%20L%2012hrs%20RGB%204hrs%2 0each.jpg)

Luminance: 12 hrs. RGB: 4 hrs each. FLI PL16803 at -30C, on 20 inch PlaneWave CDK. As usual, all robotics and all acquisition and processing software designed and built in-house.

The luminance data are from this new moon. The RGB data are about 50% this month, and 50% from a couple years ago, using the Aspen CG16803M. We were blessed this time with still, dark sky and occasionally very good seeing, so we've not used any of the old luminance data.

The two extremely long and largely amorphous tidal tails evoke the head of a moth, hence the common name. For the wise, we know that they are really Go Gadget Arms. The pattern of bright blue star-forming regions within the colliding pair is most unusual, with no hint of the original spiral structure remaining.

The background shows countless very distant galaxies, with a group of orange-red ellipticals toward ten o'clock, and at least two quite separate distant colliding pairs, each with their own mouse-like tidal tails, about half way out toward 6:30 or 7:00.

Best,

Mike and Trish

[Atmos]

That’s fantastic MnT! It’s not often to see the tidal tails being so smoothly transitioning from the background. 12 hours of luminance has really helped it jump out.

[glend]

I agree with Colin. Outstanding work in pulling the tail details out of the background. I have imaged these two myself and I know how much time this sort of result requires. That CDK20 is a fantastic scope, in very capable hands. Another great image from Mike and Trish.:thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly Colin. A few years ago we did quite a bit of 2x2 binning on it, but either the old camera was already getting cranky or we were too optimistic about thin cloud and a hint of moon. We mostly photographed dust bunnies.





Thanks Glen, that's most encouraging. We just might be able to add a few more hours Wednesday or Friday night. Fingles crossed.

[gregbradley]

Bravo, wonderful!

Ah yes CDK images. I look forward to taking some more of my own soon.

I wonder how disruptive it is to solar systems within these galaxies when they merge like this? I suppose most are not affected much as galaxies are mostly huge volumes of space but gravitational forces must slowly cause some changes.

Greg.

[topheart]

Wow!
Glittering, sparkling...gorgeous!
Wonderful tidal arms.

Great work!
Cheers,
Tim

[Atmos]

On this, I did a statistical simulation of the Milky Way and Andromeda collision a few years ago and both galaxies would have to pass through one another in their entirety 6-7 times before there would be a collision.

Now disruptions and collisions are two very different things but it gives a bit of an idea of how little disruptions there are. I guess you’d statistically expect a major disruption or two when hundreds of billions of stars are being forced together :)

[Placidus]

Many warm thanks Greg. As Colin later mentions, the stars tend not to hit each other, but the gas on the other hand does collide, and typically glows UV or even X-ray hot. Life on the surface of planets might get tricky, but it might be ok underground. Not on Earth though. The sun would be a red giant by then. So some other distant Coober Pedy.

Looking forward to seeing your CDK images. Your field is quite a bit wider than ours. You can fit in more of Bigfoot, or more of the Running Chicken, or more of the Rosette, etc.

[Placidus]

Thanks hugely Tim. Right through the drought, the seeing has been really tops here, but the scope was mostly out of action. We're catching the tail end of it, I guess.

[Placidus]

That would be one heavy piece of computation. Not on your iPhone. :thumbsup: My belief (can't quickly find a reference) is that it's not the stars that collide, it's the gas between the stars. The compression of the interstellar gas triggers the spectacular new star formation that you can see in parts of the Antennae.

[beren]

:thumbsup: Wow , awesome image glorious in fact

[FlashDrive]

Where's that ' Like ' Button ... !!

Just Beautiful

[multiweb]

That's an awesome shot Mike. You're back on the horse and galloping into the sunset now. :eyepop:

[Placidus]

Thanks very much for the kind words guys. We are greatly heartened.


MnT

[Peter Ward]

Not sure I can add much to the previous accolades...other than it looks rather like a pair of yin-yang fish... :)

An inscrutably lovely image.

[Placidus]

Thanks Peter, we are tickled. It does look like said fishy symbol.

[Atmos]

You’re most definitely correct! Galaxy mergers cause extreme star formation rates in both galaxies due to the concussive forces on gaseous regions. Supernova cause localised star formation to increase where as galaxy collisions cause galaxy wide star formation.

What I did was a true back of the envelope calculation. I took the rough area of space within two galaxies, the average amount of stars with an average size and calculated the amount of space required for a potential collision.
That’s what I did from memory, it was a procrastination hour from writing about stellar evolutions within globular clusters some 7 years ago haha

[Ryderscope]

A very timely post of an intriguing object. I shall use it for a benchmark against which to review my modest attempt that I am about to begin with data from the TSA120. Thanks for an inspiring post and good to see images emerging from the deep again :)

[Placidus]

Does (or could) your TSA120 have adaptive optics? The combination would be deadly sharp.

[Ryderscope]

Hmm, good question. Does not have adaptive optics currently and not sure about feasibility. Might be worth a little research. Seeing is certainly a limiting factor at my location and I’m generally happy if I can get under 3”.

[Andy01]

Lovely job M&T - so nice to see you guys back imaging again! :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Andy. The tiny little background galaxies are what this beastie seems particularly good at.

[Geoff45]

What I find fascinating is the incredible detail in the tails. I did this object a while back so I can see what I have missed. Hard to go past this one

[Retrograde]

Beautiful M&T. Such great image scale and detail.

[Placidus]

Many thanks Geoff. We remember your image. It was impressive.



Cheers Pete!

[Phil Hart]

Wow :eyepop: That's amazing. Stunning work.. like the others said.

Phil

[Placidus]

Thanks Phil, most kind.

[PeterSEllis]

That is a spectacular shot of the Antenna Galaxy. 24 Hours imaging, is only what I can dream about, at the moment I'm lucking if I can score 2 clear nights a month here.

Cheers
Peter

[codemonkey]

That's an awesome rendition of the Antennae, guys! Congrats! Particularly good job on the tails.

[ChrisV]

Wow! I didn't know the antennae were that long. That pretty amazing

[Placidus]

Peter, Lee, Chris, thanks very much for the kind words.

Teaser: We've since added another night of colour, and reprocessed it without any of the old Aspen stuff. It now shows that the tip of the south-eastern antenna has clumpy blue patches. Tonight we were all set to add a night of 2x2 binned data to get the extreme faintest parts of the tidal tails, but the seeing and transparency are off and it is threatening to rain in the morning. Might have to be next month.