Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Centaurus (Cen)  ·  Contains:  Centaurus A  ·  NGC 5128
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Centaurus A, from Central Florida, Frank Kane
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Centaurus A, from Central Florida

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Centaurus A, from Central Florida, Frank Kane
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Centaurus A, from Central Florida

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Description

For just a couple of hours in the middle of the night, Centaurus A rises above the treeline at 15 degrees here in Central Florida. Making matters worse, it's in the South which is the most light polluted direction from my backyard. A real challenge object! But very rewarding to nab what is generally considered a Southern hemisphere object, and to see such an odd galaxy. There's a supermassive black hole in there spewing relativistic jets at half the speed of light in X-Ray and radio frequencies... and it looks like a merger between an elliptical and spiral galaxy in progress.

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Centaurus A, from Central Florida, Frank Kane