Images inspired by Hubble images
For a long time I thought the very distant and very small deep sky objects imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope were beyond the capability of my modest equipment and my even more modest imaging skills. Most were about 2 arcmin or less in size. However, after some success imaging very small planetary nebulae, I decided to give them a try. The images below are what I have gotten so far.
CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL TO VIEW THE IMAGE AT HIGHER RESOLUTION
For a long time I thought the very distant and very small deep sky objects imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope were beyond the capability of my modest equipment and my even more modest imaging skills. Most were about 2 arcmin or less in size. However, after some success imaging very small planetary nebulae, I decided to give them a try. The images below are what I have gotten so far.
CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL TO VIEW THE IMAGE AT HIGHER RESOLUTION
LRG3-757 - This is an example of an Einstein Ring caused by strong gravitational lensing. It is a system of 2 galaxies in Leo, a foreground galaxy 5.2 billion light-years away and a background galaxy 10.3 billion light years away. The foreground galaxy is a luminous red galaxy (LRG3-757) with about 10 times the mass of the Milky Way, and its position directly between us and the blue background galaxy causes gravitational bending of the latter’s light into an almost complete ring.The visual magnitude of the object is 20.3 and the diameter of the ring is 10 arc-sec.
Einstein predicted this effect, but doubted it would ever be observed. The following is from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_ring): "The bending of light by a gravitational body was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1912, a few years before the publication of General Relativity in 1916 (Renn et al. 1997). The ring effect was first mentioned in academic literature by Orest Chwolson in 1924. Einstein remarked upon this effect in 1936 in a paper prompted by a letter by a Czech engineer, R W Mandl [1], but stated 'Of course, there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly. First, we shall scarcely ever approach closely enough to such a central line. Second, the angle β will defy the resolving power of our instruments.' — Science vol 84 p 506 1936 In this statement, β is the Einstein Radius .... However, Einstein was only considering the chance of observing Einstein rings produced by stars, which is low; however, the chance of observing those produced by larger lenses such as galaxies or black holes is higher since the angular size of an Einstein ring increases with the mass of the lens.” Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/6.8 Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 15 X 30 minutes = 7.5 hrs |
The Cartwheel Galaxy (also designated as Vorontsov-Velyaminov 784) - This galaxy is 500 million light-years away in Sculptor. It is thought that VV 784 was at one time a fairly normal spiral galaxy, but a direct collision with another galaxy almost destroyed it. The intruding galaxy passed through the center decimating the spiral arms and causing a shock wave that traveled outward like a ripple on a pond creating a bright blue ring of intense star formation. One of the small galaxies above and to the left of VV 784 may have been the intruder. The yellowish remnant of the core of the original galaxy is visible inside the blue ring. The “spokes” emanating from the core remnant outward to the ring are signs of the spiral arms reforming. The ring is about 1 arcmin in diameter. More info can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwheel_Galaxy
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/6.8 Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 12 X 30 minutes = 6 hrs |
The Egg Nebula - This object, about 3000 light-year away in Cygnus, was cataloged in 1971 by Fritz Zwicky as a pair of dwarf galaxies. However, sounding rocket studies from 1971-74 showed it to be a strong infrared source, cataloged as CRL 2688. The first low resolution optical images showed two oval nebulas, leading E. P. Ney to name it the “Egg Nebula' in 1975. Since 1975 there have been many studies that have characterized it as a protoplanetary nebula. The dying star is hidden from our view by a dusty accretion disk with an axis of rotation almost perpendicular to our line of sight (i.e. the dark band through the center of the nebula in both my image and the Hubble image). However, the star does shine brightly along the axis of rotation illuminating ejected material. Concentric rings clearly visible in the Hubble image, and faintly visible in mine, indicate that the star is pulsating and ejecting material with each pulse, Comparisons of Hubble images taken over the time period 1995 - 2009 show that the star started pulsing about 4000 years ago and, on average, pulses every 100 years. The other significant features, and the main ones I was able to image, are the twin “searchlights” shining in both directions along the axis of rotation. These are thought to be just that, starlight shining through gaps in obscuring disks on either side of the star.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200R @ f/6.8 Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 5 X 30 minutes = 2 hr 30 min |
SDSS J1038+4849 - This image exhibits an Einstein ring resulting from the gravitational bending of light from a distant galaxy by an intervening massive galaxy cluster.
The two galaxies responsible for the ring are about 10 arc-sec apart and about 4.5 billion light-years away. The lensed galaxy is about 7.5 billion light-years away. Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 14 X 30 minutes = 7 hrs |
Arp 273 - Arp 273 (size = 1.5 arcmin X 0.4 arcmin) consists of two galaxies 300 million light-years away, the smaller of which, UGC 1813, has apparently passed through the larger one, UGC 1810. The interaction has distorted the spiral arms of UGC 1810 and has instigated star formation in both galaxies.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 12 X 15 minutes = 3 hrs |
Arp 147(IC 298) - This is a pair of interacting ring galaxies about 450 million light-years away in Cetus. The O-shaped galaxy is about 18 X 27 arc-sec. It is thought that this pair is a result of a cataclysmic collision during which the edge-on galaxy on the left passed through the center of the galaxy on the right, ripping out its core. The remnant of the latter galaxy is a ring of newly-formed, hot blue stars. The collision also created tidal streams of gas and stars around the galaxies.,
There are a number of more distant galaxies in the image, the most prominent being PGC 11893, the small blue spiral galaxy just below and to the left of IC 298. Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 12 X 30 minutes = 6hrs |
PGC 54559 (Hoag's Object) - Hoag’s Object is a strange ring galaxy about 600 million light-years away in Serpens. It was discovered by Arthur Hoag in 1950. Originally Hoag thought it was an Einstein ring caused by a gravitational lens, but the ring and the core have the same red shift. It is thought that most ring galaxies are formed when a smaller galaxy passes through a larger one, ripping out its core. However, as is evident, the core of Hoag’s Object is intact. Also, there are no smaller galaxies in the neighborhood that could have penetrated it, so the mechanism for its formation is not clear. The diameter of the core is about 6 arcsec and the mean diameter of the ring is about 35 arcsec. (Remarkably, there is another, more distant Hoag-like ring galaxy visible in the Hubble image between the core and the ring at about the 1 o’clock position. Go here to see it more clearly - http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/21/image/a/format/large_web/ .)
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7.2 with Astro-Physics telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 28 X 15 minutes = 7 hrs |
Arp 55 - Also known at The Grasshopper, these colliding galaxies lie about 500 million light-years away in Lynx. The galaxies are severely distorted, but the cores have not yet merged. They are about 0.5 arcmin in size.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 5 X 30 minutes = 2.5hrs |
Arp 87 - This pair of interacting galaies, NGC 3808a and NGC 3808b, are 300 million light-years away in the constellation, Leo. Gas is being stripped from the larger galaxy and is looping in an orbit around the smaller one. The galaxies are about 2 arcmin X 1 arcmin in size.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 15 X 30 minutes = 7 hrs 30 min |
Abell 383 - This image is of the gravitational lens caused by the massive galaxy cluster, Abell 383. which is about 2.5 billion light-years away in Eridanus. Light from galaxies behind Abell 383 is bent in accordance with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, giving them a distorted appearance. The size of the box around the enlargement is about 1 arcmin in width.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 6 X 30 minutes = 3 hrs |
Kohoutek 4-55 - This tiny planetary nebula (diameter ~ 20 arc-sec) in Cygnus was discovered by Czech astronomer, Lubos Kohoutek, in the 1970's. The Hubble narrowband image shows its complexity with nitrogen in red, hydrogen in green and oxygen in blue. This object is about the lower limit in size for my 8" telescope.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7.2 with Astro-Physics telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 16 X 15 minutes = 4 hrs |
Arp 299 - Arp 299 (size = about 2 arcmin in diameter) is a pair of colliding galaxies in Ursa Major (IC 694 on the left and NGC 3690 on the right) were recently imaged by NASA’s X-ray imaging satellite, NuSTAR. The NuSTAR data show that a monster black hole in NGC 3690 is very actively devouring gas and dust, but the massive black hole in IC 694 seems to be either dormant or obscured by dust. This object is 130 million light years away. The monster black hole is in the bright region near the center of the colliding galaxies. Above and to the left of Arp 299 is a distant barred spiral galaxy, PGC 35345, mag 15.7.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 12 X 30 minutes = 6 hrs |
NGC 6670 - NGC 6670 (size = 1 arcmin X 0.3 arcmin) is actually two interacting galaxies about 400 million light-years away in Draco.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 16 X 15 minutes = 4 hrs |
NGC 6240 - NGC 6240 (size = about 1.2 arcmin X 2 arcmin) is ocated in Ophiuchus and is the remnant of two galaxies that have merged. It is about 400 million light-years away and is about 300,000 light-years wide. The most obvious visual signs of the merger are the trails and loops of gas and dust associated with it.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 16 X 15 minutes = 4 hrs |
NGC 2371 - This planetary nebula, about 4300 light-years away in Gemini, has two NGC designations in Herschel’s New General Catalog because he thought the two lobes were distinct nebulae. The lower right lobe is NGC 2371 and the upper left lobe is NGC 2372. It has several interesting structural features. The core region has a dark lane through it, and there is a large, faint halo surrounding it. The remnant of the progenitor red giant (mag = 14.8, T = 118,000K) is super hot and it is thought that its ultraviolet light is illuminating parts of the halo through the dark lanes causing the bright ansae, or handles, on the right and left sides.
After I had imaged it, I took a look at the Hubble image of the central region and noted that there are two gas jets shooting out in opposite directions from the central star. I went back to my image and looked closely, and, sure enough, they were there. The diameter of the central region is about 1 arc-min, and the jets are about 5-10 arc-sec long. Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 8 X 30 minutes = 4 hrs |
Double Quasar (QSO 0957+561) - This is a gravitationally lensed object in Ursa Major. It is not a spectacular image, but the story is great. This was the first gravitationally lensed object discovered in 1979 when it was found that two quasars very near one another were actually two images of the same quasar. The studies over the ensuing years have established that a massive galaxy cluster lies nearly on our line of sight to the quasar. The largest galaxy in that cluster, YGKOW G1, is almost directly between us and component B of the quasar. (It is visible in the Hubble image, but it is too faint to be seen in mine.) The quasar lies at a redshift of 1.413 (about 15 billion light-years) and the galaxy cluster lies at a redshift of 0.355 (about 5 billion light-years). By watching fluctuations in the intensity of radiation from the two components of the quasar, it has been determined that light from component A reaches us 417 days before that of component B. That means the warped path of the quasar’s light for component B is slightly longer that the path for component A. The two components are 6 arcsec apart and both are about magnitude 17.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/7 with Starizona SCT corrector Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 6 X 30 minutes = 3 hrs |
Sharpless 2-106 - This emission nebula (size = about 1 arcmin X 3 arcmin) is about 2000 light-years away in Cygnus. It is a compact region of dust and gas with a young star, S106 IR, embedded in it. SR106 IR is only about 100,000 years old and is very massive, about 15 solar masses. It is streaming matter from jets at both of its poles. These jets heat the surrounding dust and gas giving rise to an hourglass-shaped nebula. The filaments in the lower region look helical, which could indicate a magnetic field.
The original Hubble image used blue to indicate hydrogen emission. I have changed that to red to match the color of hydrogen emission in my image. Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 18 X 15 minutes = 4 hrs 30 min |
NGC 4214 - This irregular galaxy in Canes Venatici is about 10 million light-years away. The core region imaged by Hubble is about 2 arcmin X 1.5 arcmin.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 24 X 15 minutes = 6 hrs |
NGC 278 - This is a face-on spiral starburst galaxy about 38.5 million light-years away in Cassiopeia. The diameter of the outer halo is about 2.2 arcmin and the diameter of the compact region is about 1 arcmin.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 16 X 15 minutes = 4 hrs |
Minkowski 1-92 (also called Minkowski’s Footprint) - This is a cometary reflection nebula (size = 16 arcsec) in Cygnus. It is thought to be a refection nebula near a star in the protoplanetary stage near the end of its life. It will soon blow off its outer layers creating a planetary nebula. Gas streams ejected from its poles are illuminated by the star. One of the streams points roughly towards us and one points away from us. The intrinsic brightness of the bright stream makes it one of the brightest reflection nebulas known. In my image the bright lobe is the upper right one. This is the smallest deep sky object I have imaged that shows its structure.
Telescope: Meade 8" LX200R @ f/7 with an Astro-Physics 0.67X telecompressor Camera: SBIG ST-8300C Autoguiding: Starlight Xpress OAG with Meade DSI using PHD2 Exposure: 13 minutes |
NGC 4314 - This barred spiral galaxy is about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. Even more striking than its symmetric shape is the prominent star-forming ring at its core, just visible in this image. It is thought that this ring has formed fairly recently, over the past few million years. The ring is about 0.8 arcmin in diameter.
Telescope: Meade 14" LX200GPS @ f/5 with Optec 0.5X reducer/corrector Camera: SBIG ST-2000XM Exposures: L = 120 min, R = G = B = 40 min |