MACS J1115.9+0129, Galaxy Cluster (Firas Haki)

MACS J1115.9+0129, Galaxy Cluster

Digging into the Hubble archive to hunt never previously processed data, is a joyful thing. There are basically never touched treasures out there to be processed.

I believe Hubble sends 600 GB of data weekly and has been doing so for more than 30 years.

It took a few days to understand how the Hubble archive site works. Particularly difficult was to understand which data to download and which won't give so much headache to work with. There are namely tons of different scientific filters and a handfull cameras.

MACS J1115.9 + 0129.

A cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation of Leo at a distance of over 3.7 billion light-years!

It was one of the 25 galaxy clusters studied with the Hubble Space Telescope during an observation campaign called Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) over a period of three and a half years (2010 -2013). The gravitational lensing effect made it possible to detect the amplified images of several distant galaxies located behind the cluster.

The image consist of two filters and a synthetic green to assemble an RGB image. I applied some minor cosmetic work as the image had a gap in the middle which had a different noise profile than the rest of the image.

I avoided to work with known spectacular objects photographed by Hubble as they are already done, and focused on the lesser known ones (or at least unknown to amateur Astro- photographers). I liked the the wide-field and its similarities to amateur astrophotographs of galaxy clusters. Though the gravitational lensing and the whooping 3.7 billions light-years distance makes a whole world of difference. Yet one could say that it is aesthetically similar.

Hope you enjoy it!
More to come!

HST

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Distribution of astrophotographers

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4943462
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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