Here are the Antennae Galaxies, also known as the Ringtail Galaxies (designated as NGC4038 & NGC4039 or Caldwell 60/61).  This duo gets their “insect” name from the two long tails of gas and dust ejected from the collision of the galaxies.  The Antennae Galaxies are located in the constellation Corvus (which is just below Leo) and are estimated to be 45 million light years from Earth with a combined diameter across the two galaxies of ~1500 light years. 

These galaxies are undergoing a galactic collision which is causing significant generation of new stars.  As a result of the galaxies merging, they are in a “starburst” phase, where the clouds of gas and dust in conjunction with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation.  As the two galaxies interact, thousands of millions of stars are born, mostly in groups and clusters of stars.  The brightest and most compact of these are called super star clusters, containing tens of thousands of stars.  The two galaxies are dotted with brilliant blue star-forming regions surrounded by glowing hydrogen gas (the pink areas in this image).

Approximately 1.2 billion years ago, the Antennae were two separate galaxies – both barred spiral galaxies (Bm).  NGC4038 is the galaxy on the right-hand side in this image.  In about 400 million years, the two distinct galaxy nuclei will collide and become a single core surrounded by stars, gas, and dust.  Model simulations (based on observations of other colliding galaxies) indicate that the merge will form an elliptical galaxy.

These pictures were shot with the IDAZ Dual Narrowband filter which is great for heavy light pollution areas (like mine), moonlight, and allows light transmission in two main frequency regions:
1.     Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) (red) at 656.3 nm with a bandwidth of 15nm
2.     Oxygen III (Oiii) (blue) at 500.7 nm with a bandwidth of 35nm

This image was processed in the one-shot color format (OSC).

These images that make up this picture were collected over five nights (3/5/2024, 4/1/2024, 4/2/2024, 4/3/2024, & 4/5/2024), with moonlight averaging 36.7%.

My setup:·       

• Mount: EQ6R-Pro·
• Telescope: Celestron Edge HD 8” with Celestron 0.7 Reducer – Focal Length is 1422mm with F7 aperture·
• Guiding: Celestron OAG (Off-Axis Guider) and ZWO 290MM camera·
• ZWO ASI2600MC Pro; Camera cooled to -10 deg C, with IDAZ Duo-Band Narrowband Light Pollution Reduction Filter·
• Bortle-9 – South Los Angeles shot from my backyard·
• Integration Time: 14 Hours 25 Minutes; Lights (173 @ 300 seconds); Darks (20 @ 300 seconds); Flats (30) & Dark Flats (30).·
• Image Processing: Pixinsight – Using @Lukomatico’ updated galaxy processing tutorial·
• Incorporated Russell Croman’s amazing products (Blur, Noise, and Star Xterminators)