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ABELL GALAXY CLUSTER SOUTH 805

PAVO - GALAXY CLUSTER

 (ra: 18:48 34s / dec - 63º18' 54")

 

 

 

JULY 2012, Archicampo, Doyle Provincia de Buenos Aires,

Argentina

 

 


 

DATA

TYPE: Galaxy Cluster

APPARENT MAGNITUDE: IC 4765 11.03 and fainter  

IMAGE FOV: 32 x 25 arc minutes

SIZE: IC 4765 3 x 2 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 220 millions light years

 

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

AGCS 805 stands for Abell Galaxy Cluster South 805. The cluster includes at least eight major galaxies and probably several dozen dwarf galaxies. In this image, all the galaxies seem to be equally distant from us. Most here are true members of AGCS 805 about 220 million light-years away. The brightest galaxy in the centre of the image is IC 4765 — a 12th magnitude super giant elliptical galaxy that gravitationally dominates the lesser cluster members.

Adding an extra dimension to this big picture, because AGCS 805 is about 220 million light-years distant, we cannot see these galaxies in “real time”. We can only see them as they were 220 million years ago because it takes that long for their light to reach our telescopes. The light from these galaxies we see now left them about the same time the first true dinosaurs roamed the Earth in the mid-Triassic period.

AGCS 805 is a massive cluster of dozens of galaxies containing trillions of stars (so vast and remote as to be beyond meaningful human comprehension). However, it is just one component of a vastly bigger Pavo-Indus super-cluster of galaxies including more than a dozen other similar galaxy clusters: a cluster of galaxy clusters. (*)

(*) Sydney Observatory Essay on AGCS 805

 

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron SCT 8" Starizona Corrector @ f8 (1600 mm FL)

MOUNT: Sky Watcher NEQ6

SKY CONDITIONS: Rural Skies - seeing good - transparency good

CAMERAS: QSI 583 WS -10Cº

FILTERS: Baader 31 mm LRGB, 

EXPOSURES: LRGB (60,30,30,30) L bin 1x1, RGB bin 2x2

GUIDING: William Optics ZenithStar 66 f6. Starlight Xpress Lodestar Camera. PHD Guiding 

PROCESSING: Images Plus, NASA Photoshop Fits Liberator, Photoshop CS