Antennae Galaxies NGC 4038 and 9

[markas (Mark)]

This interacting pair is about 45 Mly away in Corvus.

The tenuous antennae, composed largely of stars ejected from both galaxies started to form about 300 Million years ago. It is thought that the nuclei will collide in about 400 Million years and a giant elliptical galaxy will result.

I didn't find this to be a particularly easy target. Total exposure 7.2 hours; ASA10N at f/3.6; Moravian G2-8300; Astrodon filters. Post processed in Pixinsight.

Mark

[Atmos (Colin)]

Looks quite nicely captured
Would love to see a higher res version

[glend (Glen)]

Nice to see them again. Not an easy target right now is an understatement, given that they do not get above 40 degrees altitude until about 3:18am at 32.9 degrees south this week, and astro dawn began around 3:55am. How did you manage to grab over 7 hrs from down in Melbourne (37.8 S)? Amazing effort considering.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Certainly an interesting target Mark and worthy of the effort to capture the required data.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Superb out of season pre-dawn capture. Very deep and good colour in the core.

[markas (Mark)]

Thanks all.

I should have said that the image was shot early April this year - so I'm just an ordinary coward when it comes to very late nights and very early mornings!

Mark

[RickS (Rick)]

Nice image, Mark. It's an intriguing target.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Good result Mark...there was a time that astrophotographers could only dream of revealing those faint Antennea

Mike

[markas (Mark)]

Rick and Mike,

Thanks for the comments. The antennae certainly need time to dig them out of the background

Mar