Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Corvus (Crv)  ·  Contains:  Antennae  ·  NGC 4038  ·  NGC 4039
NGC 4038, Frank Colosimo
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NGC 4038

NGC 4038, Frank Colosimo
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NGC 4038

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

NGC 4038 (and NGC4039 or the Antennae Galaxies) is a mag 11.2 (visual) pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation of Corvus. The galaxies are colliding and the interaction and resulting compression of gas and dust is creating a tremendous starburst effect (rapid stellar creation), which shows up in the bright blue 'knots' in the central lobes. This object is noted for two long star stream 'tails' that resemble giant insect antennae. The distance from Earth is estimated at 45 million light years.

Processing information:

Corvus lies low in the Southern sky from my observatory at a declination of -19 degrees and imaging is very difficult when the object barely gets to 30 degrees above the horizon. The dense atmosphere that exists between the telescope and the object distorts the image and reduces the resolution that can be obtained. This is an interesting object, however, so we get what we can. The main components of the colliding galaxies and even the 'antennae' were captured in the image.

Date: Mar 23 - Apr 27, 2014 Reprocessed in Nov 2018

Location: New Ringgold PA

Optics: Hyperion f/8 12.5 inch, FL 2540 mm

Mount: Paramount ME

Camera: Apogee U8300

Guiding: ST-402 on Innovations Foresight On-Axis Guider, SharpLock focusing method

Exposure: LRGB: L:24x10min R:21x8 min, G:11x6 min, B:24x10 min for a total of 11.9 hrs.

Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing with Photoshop.

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NGC 4038, Frank Colosimo

In these public groups

Cloudy Nights
Northeast Imagers