NGC 4647 and Messier 60, Dance of Galaxies.
- Constellation: Virgo
- Right Ascension: 12h 43m 32.3s
- Declination: 11° 34′ 55″
- Distance: 56 million ly - 63 million ly
NGC 4647 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, and Messier 60 is elliptical galaxy that are just beginning to interact with each other. The pair of interacting galaxies are cataloged as Arp 116, which is a catalog of interacting galaxies. The pair are a part of the Virgo galaxy cluster.
Annotated image follows.
- Details
- Category: Galaxies
Read more: NGC 4647 and Messier 60, Dance of Galaxies.
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Messier 75 (2022)
- Constellation: Sagittarius
- Right Ascension: 20h 06m 04.85s
- Declination: −21° 55′ 17.85″
- Distance: 68,000 ly
If globular cluster NGC 5897 (2022) ranks low on the Shapely-Sawyer concentration scale, Messier 75 comes out at the top of it's class with a rank of 1 (I). If it wasn't for being on the other side of the galactic center, it would be much more spectacular to image. The cluster has a radius of 67 light years, and contains some 400,000 stars. Would definitely be a sky full of bright stars if one was located inside the cluster.
- Details
- Category: Globular Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
NGC 5897 (2022)
- Constellation: Libra
- Right Ascension: 15h 17m 24.40s
- Declination: −21° 00′ 36.4″
- Distance: 40,000 ly
User Rating: 5 / 5
NGC 5897 is a globular cluster that is a satellite globular of the Milky Way Galaxy. Forming at or before the formation of our galaxy, they typically range in age of 10-12 billion years old. Age is estimated based on the amount of metal located in the stars, which is considered to be anything other than hydrogen and helium. It's measure of metallicity is measured at -1.9 (Fe/H). NGC 5897 has a low density of stars, and using the Sawyer Concentration class which ranges from 1 to 12 (most to least), it is ranked as a low 11.
- Details
- Category: Globular Clusters
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Y CVn
- Constellation: Canes Venatici
- Right Ascension: 12h 45m 07.826s
- Declination: +45° 26′ 24.93″
- Distance: 760 - 1000 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: +4.86 - +7.32
Also know as its popular name La Superba, a giant red star, and one of the reddish known with a B-V index of 2.54. A carbon in the star's outer shell absorbs blue light giving its distinctive reddish light. Primary has a 160 day cycle in its magnitude variations. The star is in its final stages of its evolution and is expected to expel its outer layers in the future, and form a planetary nebula before shrinking down to become a slowly cooling white dwarf.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: GSO RC10
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Draco Dwarf Galaxy
- Constellation: Draco
- Right Ascension: 17h 20m 12.4
- Declination: +57° 54′ 55″
- Distance: 260,000 ly
A bit difficult to see, it was only noticed in 1954 from Palomar sky survey photographic plates. It is a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy.
Consisting of mostly old population stars its virtually dust free thus not creating very many new stars.
Annotated image follows.
- Details
- Category: Galaxies
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
Baade's Window (2022)
- Constellation: Sagittarius
- Right Ascension: 18h 03m 32.14s
- Declination: -30d 02m 06.96s
Baade's Window is the largest of 6 relative dust free zones allowing astronomers to study stars in the central bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy. Nothing illustrates the billions of stars in our galaxy like a view of the view of the galactic center, even if only a tiny slice.
Also visible are two globular clusters, NGC 6522 at the center and NGC 6528 below. NGC 6522 is centered in the view of Baade's Window, and at an estimated age of 12 billion years makes it one of the oldest around our galaxy and lies at a distance of 25,100 light years. NGC 6528 is 25,800 light years distant and is unusually meta rich for a globular
The bright star in the lower left is W Sgr, which is a multiple star system, and the primary star is a classical Cepheid variable star that it's magnitude varies over 7 1/2 days.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: Explore Scientific 127 Refractor
- Camera: ZWO 2600 MM
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