Centaurus Galaxy cluster

[ErwinvdVelden]

Hi everyone,

Also I made a shot of the Centaurus Galaxy cluster:

http://www.erwinvandervelden.id.au/CentaurusCluster050604.jpg

6x640s + 1x1145s shot with the modified D70 @ 800 ISO with the C9.25 @ f/6.3 on the Vixen GP DX.

Still have 3 more deep sky shots to process, haven't even had time to do some planetary work!

Cheers,

[fringe_dweller]

:eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop: WOW to the power of 10!! Extremely original and exciting - why isnt this region a mega famous deep imaging target!!!???? :-)))))
Kearn

[quicksimon]

:jawdrop: :eyepop:
Amazing

[iceman]

Wow that's a lot of faint fuzzies! Where did you take these Erwin? You've been a busy man!

Fantastic shot.

[Robby]

Holy crap! Hubble deep field watch out... Erwin deep field on the trail...
Can you name any of the objects in this shot? NGC numbers?? I think I'm going to have to give it ago.. Looks like it'll need a dark site.
Cheers

[ving]

:drool:

[toetoe]

Fantastic, amazing and jaw dropping stuff. :thumbsup: :2thumbs: :thumbsup:

[xstream]

:eyepop: Unbelievable Erwin between Yourself, Eddie and Scott what hope have any of us guys got.
Well done keep it up! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

:D come on guys, its obviously a paintshop mock up :scared3: .

Fantastic shot, great skill (wish I had some) :2thumbs: :2thumbs:

[atalas]

Great shot Erwin !


Louie :thumbsup:

[seeker372011]

Ok how many galaxies can you count? I make it 16 possibly 17

[dhumpie]

Holy cow.....think I jumped out of my skin when I saw this one. Shades of Hubble Deep field.

Darren

[ving]

did you call astrobelle?
;)

[Kieken]

I'm already at 30 (also counting those faint background blobs ;) ).

Nice pic Erwin, one of the best pictures of a galaxycluster I've ever seen.

[[1ponders]]

I got lost at around 40. Need to print it out I think

[acropolite]

What can I say that hasn't already been said, thanks for the post and allowing us to see what's possible....:D

[ballaratdragons]

As a Galaxy Hunter myself I am 'Blown Away!' What a fantastic region and a Fantastic shot Erwin!!!!

I gotta find that spot! Especially as the Fornax Cluster has gone on holidays for a while.

Where in Centaurus is it Exactly?

[ErwinvdVelden]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your compliments :D .

The two main galaxies are NGC 4696 and NGC 4709 and are the only two I was able to discern visually. The cluster consists of two sub groups that turn out to be moving towards each other, the distance of these two clusters is between 110 and 140 million light years. 24 galaxies are brighter than magnitude 14 over a field of 1.5 x 1.5 degrees, and since the field of view of my image is smaller the limiting galaxy magnitude goes quite a bit beyond that.

For more information see:

http://www.sas.org.au/Galaxy%20Chronicles.htm

in chapter (34).

I've found only a few other images by amateurs on the net:

http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/centc.html
http://kiss-the-sky.com/CentaurusGalaxyCluster.htm
http://www.pcug.org.au/~stevec/ngc4696_ST10.htm

The latter link has a similar field of view and limiting magnitude as my shot and also states the coordinates.

And yes, there are a lot of faint fuzzies that are easily overlooked! I haven't done a serious attempt my self, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are more than 50 in my image.

Terry, thanks for putting these images on pbase!

See you on Astrofest.

Cheers,

[ausastronomer]

Erwin,

That is an absolutely outstanding photograph.

I get a handfull of these visually in my 10" from good skies.

CS-John B

[fringe_dweller]

Yours is the best by far! Definitely like the wider fov in yours a lot more - and your bright galaxys dont have burnt in cores :) thanks for the info!
Kearn

[tornado33]

Great image there. Do you do your imaging from a surburban or a very dark sky location?
Thanks.
Scott

[ErwinvdVelden]

Thanks Scott,

It's from Leyburn, a very dark sky location 70 km SW of Toowoomba. Usually I go there for two or three nights per month to shoot enough RAW's to keep me busy until the next session. Here at home near Brisbane I make planetary images only.

Cheers,

[asimov]

Thank you Erwin.......fanTastic.

[avandonk]

Your many galaxies are over exposed!Well done!

Bert