B
OTA: CDK24” f/6.5
Camera: Moravian C3-61000 Pro, 2x2 binned at capture
Observatory: Heaven's Mirror, Chile
Exposures:
R: 12 x 900 sec
G: 22 x 900
B: 13 x 900
H: 14 x 900 sec
Total Exposure time used: 16.25 hours
Image Width: 29.6 arc-minutes
Processing: PixInsight, Topaz Studio2, custom scripts for image weighting and star replacement
(down-sampled 2x for publication)
Pixel resolution as presented: 3.99 arc-seconds, 3x10^14 km, or nearly a billion times the distance to our moon, projected onto the DSO. (Thus, detail at the pixel level is anything but small!)
Like so many galaxies, a lot is going on. The simple spiral structures and organized nuclei do not appear to be the rule but rather the exception, at least in our neighborhood of the universe. Indeed, larger telescopes and improved image-processing technologies contributed to revealing the tangle of clouds and the consequent eruption of new star nurseries illuminating that turmoil. But galactic near-encounters and collisions, which spawn this turmoil, have had eons to operate, and, understandably, few galaxies have avoided the gravitation distortions of this =11.0pttatterdemalion galaxy.
NGC 3621 shows the consequences of at least one such "recent" event. A flattened central bulge surrounded by an active central disk and asymmetric spiral arms attest to its history.
Very recently, JWT released an image of two spiral galaxies in full collision:
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-116.html#section-id-2 . Hope you enjoy the image.
Alex Woronow
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