[pvelez (Pete)]

This is another image that was taken as a filler. While waiting for Barnard's Galaxy to rise enough to image, I took a few images of Abell 3627 - otherwise known as the Norma Cluster.

This is a galactic cluster located close to the centre of the Great Attractor (love that name) which, as the name suggests, is dragging out Local Group towards it. Its a rich cluster - lots of elliptical galaxies. Its about 68 Mpcs away.

The problem - its hidden right in the plane of the Milky Way. So unlike many of the other clusters that have been featured recently here, its difficult to make out the galaxies as the sky is awash with stars.

I thought this might be fun to image anyway so here are the first results. Its really a work in progress. I've attached the regular image and an inverted image so you can make out the fuzzes. Its a big field so I've also added a cropped region to the lower right.

Depending o weather up at Coona, I plan to beef this up - its only 45 mins in 5 min subs in Lum - and to add RGB. Will post if there is anything worth posting.

Pete