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Old 25-05-2023, 02:34 AM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
Highest Observatory in Oz

strongmanmike is offline
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,658
Arp 271 - Colliding galaxies in Virgo

NGC 5426/5427 are a pair of galaxies in the very early stages of collision and at a distance of around 127 million light years, they are each only 2.5' in apparent size, so decent sky conditions are required for a good result.

I had imaged this pair several years ago with the same imaging setup, from my previous observatory at Wallaroo, just north of Canberra but I wanted to hit them again with my new and improved site conditions up at Eagleview .

This is a relatively short exposure, totaling 9hrs, collected over two consecutive nights last New Moon weekend. Seeing and transparency conditions were pretty good, with no wind and low humidity, individual sub frame analysis with MaximDL saw an average FWHM as low as 1.5" while crossing the meridian and averaging 1.8" across the session.

No gradient removal or AI based decon/sharpeing was used. I really could do with a finer image scale, 0.84"/pix is probably not allowing me to take full advantage of the improved seeing conditions...oh well, canni have't all sonny, sigh...and yes, I know, I could get off my R's and try a good 2Xbarlow, for 0.42"/pix....

Image details are underneath each image:

Arp 271 Close Crop and Full frame Full resolution (use your screen sliders, or fingers if on a phone, to surf around)

or click on the image and use your cursor to surf around HERE and HERE

Comparing results Eagleview vs Wallaroo best viewed on a monitor rather than your phone.

Hope you like it

Mike
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Last edited by strongmanmike; 25-05-2023 at 03:43 AM.
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