Messier 13 (M13) is a globular cluster of over 100,000 stars in the constellation Hercules.
It’s located about 22,180 light years from Earth, and is 11.66 billion years old. M13 is one of the brightest star clusters visible from the Northern Hemisphere.
This image consists of 291 60s subs taken with a ZWO ASI071MC Pro camera and Antlia Quad-band light pollution filter. Telescope is a GSO RC8 at 1627mm FL, EQ6r Pro GEM mount. APT is my image capture software. PixInsight is my image processing software.
Messier 104, also known as the Sombrero Galaxy, is an edge-on spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It’s 28 million light-years away, 50,000 light-years across, and has a mass of 800 billion suns. It’s the brightest galaxy within a 32.6 million light-year radius of the Milky Way.
The Sombrero Galaxy is named for its resemblance to a Mexican hat, with a broad rim and high top. It’s best seen with small telescopes during the months of March, April, and May.
The galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. Hubble observations also reveal that the Sombrero Galaxy has nearly 2,000 globular clusters, which is 10 times more than in our galaxy. French astronomer Pierre Méchain discovered the Sombrero Galaxy in 1781, but it wasn’t included in Messier’s original catalog.
Stars The Sombrero Galaxy contains several hundred billion stars, about 100 times as many stars as there are people today on Earth.
Globular clusters The Sombrero Galaxy has an estimated 2,000 globular clusters, 10 times as many as orbit our Milky Way galaxy.
Dust lane The Sombrero Galaxy’s most striking feature is the dust lane that crosses in front of the bulge of the galaxy. This dust lane is actually a symmetrical ring that encloses the bulge of the galaxy.
Sh2-274, also known as the Medusa Nebula or Abell 21, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Gemini.
It is located 1,500 light-years away and has an estimated diameter of 4 light-years. The nebula is around 8,800 years old and was discovered in 1955 by UCLA astronomer George O. Abell
A planetary nebula is a region of cosmic gas and dust formed from the cast-off outer layers of a dying star. Despite their name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets.
When stars with an intermediate mass (greater than 80% of the Sun’s mass, but less than eight times its mass) die, they expand to form red giants. The dying star will continue to expel gas, whilst simultaneously the remaining core of the star contracts and temporarily begins to radiate energy again. This energy causes the expelled gas to ionise, meaning that the atoms and molecules in the gas become charged and begin to emit light. The cast-off glowing gas is known as a planetary nebula. Therefore, planetary nebulae are classified as emission nebulae, and are entirely unrelated to planets.
The misnomer came about because of a historical misclassification. 250 years ago, astronomers thought they were looking at gas planets when they observed the colourful spectacle of planetary nebulae through their less powerful telescopes. Planetary nebulae only last for about 20 000 years, making them a very short-lived part of the stellar life cycle.
Messier 92 (M92) is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Hercules, about 26,740 light years from Earth. It’s one of the brightest globular clusters in the Milky Way, with an apparent magnitude of 6.3, and can be seen with the naked eye in good observing conditions.
M92 is very tightly packed with stars, containing roughly 330,000 stars in total. M92 is visible in the summer sky for observers at mid-northern latitudes. It can be seen with 10 × 50 binoculars, and a small telescope can resolve the outlying stars in the cluster.
M92 is a great target for beginner Astro photographers and stays high in the sky for several months. John Herschel described it as a “globular cluster; very bright; very large; extremely compressed toward the middle; well resolved; small stars”
I like the Red and Yellow stars found within the image.
Imaged with a Sky Watcher Esprit 120ED and a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera riding a Sky Watcher EQ6r Pro mount. 256 60s subs. Image capture by APT Astro Photography Tool. Image processing with PixInsight.
This is a wide field view of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. There are 14 galaxies solved and annotated. A brief description of several galaxies is provided. An annotated version is available in the astrobin link – click the image.
NGC 4638 is a lenticular galaxy in the Virgo constellation with a magnitude of 12.1. It’s about 50 million light-years away and is a member of the Virgo Cluster. Astronomer William Herschel discovered NGC 4638 on March 15, 1784. NGC 4638 is very bright and moderately large, with an edge-on disk and a diffuse, boxy halo. The halo has a shallow surface brightness gradient, which is characteristic of a large spheroidal galaxy.
NGC 4637 is a lenticular galaxy in the Virgo constellation with a magnitude of 12.711. It was first discovered by R.J. Mitchell on March 1, 1854, and is located near the celestial equator.
M 59 – Messier 59 (M59), also known as NGC 4621, is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, about 50 million light-years away from Earth. It is part of the Virgo Cluster, which contains about 2,000 galaxies, and is one of the largest elliptical galaxies in the cluster. M59 has an absolute magnitude of -22.82 and a magnitude of 9.6. It has an estimated mass of 250 billion suns, which is greater than the Milky Way, but only a quarter of that of its nearby companion M-60.
M 60 – Messier 60 (M60), also known as NGC 4649, is an elliptical galaxy located in the Virgo constellation, about 54 million light-years from Earth. It’s about half the size of the Milky Way, but contains an estimated 400 billion stars, which could be four times the amount in our galaxy. M60 is about 60,000 light-years across and has an apparent magnitude of 9.8. M60 contains one of the most massive black holes known, with a mass of about 3.4 billion times the Sun’s mass. This black hole makes up 15 percent of the galaxy’s mass, which is too big to have formed inside a dwarf galaxy. The black hole is not producing any big outbursts of energy, and unlike the black holes in many other galaxies, it is not beaming out strong “jets” of charged particles.
NGC 4660 – NGC 4660 is an elliptical galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 63 million light-years away. It has a magnitude of 12.16 and is part of the Virgo Cluster. Astronomer William Herschel discovered NGC 4660 on March 15, 1784. NGC 4660 contains 205 globular clusters, which is typical for its size and brightness. Globular clusters often contain hundreds of thousands of old stars
NGC 4647 – NGC 4647 is a faint, intermediate spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 63 million light-years away. NGC 4647 is about two-thirds the size of Messier 60, the third brightest galaxy in the Virgo cluster. The two galaxies have overlapping optical disks, suggesting they may be interacting. However, photographic images don’t show any evidence of gravitational interaction between the two galaxies. Studies with the Hubble Space Telescope show that a tidal interaction may have begun. NGC 4647 is part of a pair of galaxies known as Arp 116, along with Messier 60, which is an elliptical galaxy. NGC 4647 is much lower in mass than Messier 60, and is roughly the size of the Milky Way.
NGC 4607 – NGC 4607 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 56 million light-years away. It has a magnitude of 13.75 and is located near the celestial equator. Astronomer R. J. Mitchell discovered NGC 4607 on April 24, 1854.
NGC 4606 – NGC 4606 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 55 million light-years away. It has a magnitude of 12.67, an apparent diameter of 2.8 arc minutes, and is located near the celestial equator. Because of this, it is at least partially visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.
IC 3704 – IC 3704 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation, near the celestial equator.
Sh2-302, also known as the Snowman Nebula, is a red emission nebula located in the constellation Puppis, about 5,800 light years away. It’s part of the Gum Nebula, which occupies the lower southern skies in winter. The nebula has a visual diameter of 15 arc minutes and is located near the boundary between Puppis and Canis Major.
Sh2-302 is one of many objects in a catalog compiled by astronomer Stewart Sharpless to identify areas of interstellar ionized hydrogen, or HII regions.
I captured this photograph Feb 18, 2024 and March 13, 2024 using a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope at a fl of 840mm and a ZWO ASI071MC Pro astrophotography camera with an Antlia quad-band light pollution filter. These are mounted on a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro German Equitorial Mount. The image acquisition software that controls everything is APT (Astro Photography Tool). Total exposure of 4.4 hrs. 75 exposures were integrated and processed using Pixinsight.
