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Old 17-08-2015, 03:57 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
Highest Observatory in Oz

strongmanmike is offline
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
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The Colossal Condor Galaxy NGC 6872 - with 8.2m VLT comparison

While not a 150hr Rolfathon (still can't believe he did that..amazing) I had a great and enjoyable night Friday night finishing off this galaxy cluster image and fitting in some visual observing under some good dark steady sky conditions .

Located in Pavo and at some 300 Million light years distance, this group of galaxies is a bloody long way away!... and at over 500,000 light years wide, the huge spiral galaxy NGC 6872, quite appropriately known as The Condor Galaxy, is the second largest spiral galaxy known...she's a whopper

Taken over three nights in quite good conditions, the main bodies of these distant galaxies are all quite small (1' to 2') so the reasonably good seeing I enjoyed assisted in revealing some details

The Colossal Condor Galaxy group (100% resolution crop)

Close up of NGC 6872

The full frame

Comparison with 8.2m VLT (FOV 6.8' X 6.8')

HERE is a fabulous shot taken with a 24" Hypergraph in Namibia

Hope you are as amazed by the shear size of NGC 6782 as I am....

Mike
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (NGC 6876 gal cluster small.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Terroux Observatory.jpg)
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Last edited by strongmanmike; 27-08-2015 at 12:39 AM.
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