Perseus Galaxy Cluster

[Martin Pugh]

At a distance of nearly 250 million light years, you have to wonder what kind of detail you would pick up in an image of this region. As it happens, many of the galaxies are quite diffuse with one or two exceptions. I really wanted to go after the detail in the very odd NGC 1275 with its red and blue 'tendrils' and even 17 hours of luminance suggests its not enough. I took a heap of Ha also, but it only added a little bit of detail to the odd galaxy or two. The face on spiral you can see to the right of NGC 1275 is NGC 1268.

Image was acquired from Heaven's Mirror Observatory at Sierra Remote; 17" CDK at f6.8 and Apogee U16M.
Exposure times were HaL(L+R)RGB: 10:17+6.5:3.5:3.5:3.5 for a total of 43 hours.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/Perseus-Galaxy-Cluster.jpg

Hope you like it, but for me, its time to move on!

cheers
Martin

[Larryp]

Lovely image, Martin!:thumbsup:

[anthony.tony]

Nice little Cluster- Tony

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Amazing image Martin!

So many galaxies to explore.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Scorpius51]

That is an awesome sight, Martin! :thumbsup:

Just imagine that in that one field, with all those galaxies, there is the possibility of an intelligent being looking back :hi:.

Kind of humbling, isn't it?

Cheers
John

[Rodstar]

Galaxy clusters have been my favourite type of object for several years now, and this image you have posted Martin sums it up for me. The scale of the image alone makes one shake one's head. That you can been able to tease out so much detail in so many of the galaxies is very satisfying.

When I visually observe galaxy clusters in my 20" scope, most galaxies look like grains of rice at best. It is wonderful to be able to see such an object with so much more precision than I can muster visually.

Thanks for sharing Martin - love your work!

[Martin Pugh]

Kind words indeed.

thank you
Martin

[David Fitz-Henr]

Great image Martin, just love these deep fields; just chock a block full of galaxies! 43 hours of exposure, wow, how many nights did that take? I'm lucky to get 4 hours a week with the weather here lately!

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks David

I started getting data on this cluster in Nov 11, but got the majority of it when it rose again this season.

cheers
Martin

[alpal]

43 hours - wow - it's a great picture.
There are just so many galaxies there.
Thanks for sharing.

[Osirisra]

Stunning!, nice bit of eye candy :)

[DJT]

Another lovely image, Martin.
Thanks

[Ross G]

What a great photo Martin.

So many galaxies!

Great colours.

Ross.

[SkyViking]

Wonderful image with so many galaxies, there are really all kinds of different shapes and sizes in there. NGC 1275 is a bit of a mystery, a very unusual galaxy indeed. Great capture, thanks for sharing :)

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks again folks, appreciate the comments.

Martin

[Leonardo70]

This is a wonderful image ... congrats Martin.
Thanks for sharing.

All the best,
Leo

[E_ri_k]

Amazing, so many galaxies!
Erik