Continuing my quest for difficult and rarely imaged distant objects, I came across this image of NGC 5216/5218 by Adam Block...
Adam Block NGC 5216/5218This is LRBG = 10:4:4:4 hours in his 32-inch Schulman RCOS.
Unfortunately the wind and sky this month didn't permit 20+ hours in the Planewave 24". But fortunately I had one long night with exceptional seeing, down to 1.5" FWHM measured on 15-minute subs. (-:
I'm pleased with the overall results and the additional galaxy (NGC5205 @ 103.5 MLY!) that happpened to be in frame.
From Adam's APOD...
"Galaxies NGC 5216 (right) and NGC 5218 really do look like they are connected by a string. Of course, that string is a cosmic trail of gas, dust, and stars about 22,000 light-years long. Also known as Keenan's system (for its discoverer) and Arp 104, the interacting galaxy pair is some 17 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The debris trail that joins them, along with NGC 5218's comma-shaped extension and the distorted arms of NGC 5216, are a consequence of mutual gravitational tides. The tides disrupt the galaxies as they repeatedly swing close to one another. Drawn out over billions of years, the encounters will likely result in their merger into a single galaxy of stars. Such spectacular galactic mergers are now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way."
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