Virgo cluster mosaic (Lee)

Virgo cluster mosaic

I've been waiting to see if I'd get any more moonless astro dark nights, but that's it here!

On one hand this is a little in no man's land - not quite deep enough due to being a mosaic in the UK and not a lot of focal length for close up detail. What I hope it does showcase is an enjoyable view into the Virgo cluster.

It's a four pane mosaic taken with my Epsilon 130D and 2600MC Pro - around 14 hours spread evenly across the four panes and three sessions.

Throughout this image there are so many galaxy sizes and types. Some clear with structure, others just coming out of the background. I have spent a lot of time just scouring back and fourth!

My favourite is probably IC3481, IC3481a (PGC41646) and IC3483 (centre bottom). These appear to have some form of interaction but if I understand what I've read (and it's still accepted today) IC3483 is a foreground galaxy and it's just a coincidence that it lines up. I was drawn to this small group as the supposed interaction was just about coming out the noise with a little time, but after a few hours it was still faint but easier to distinguish.

TypeCat in PixInsight had 1,369 Quasars listed in this field. On closer inspection a lot had nothing visible to my eye. I trimmed down this list and scripted some simple output from Simbad until I had the four with the highest redshift (z) that were visible. I created a custom catalogue (yellow) which shows their designation, redshift and Light Travel Time. Sadly I didn't break 12 Gyrs this time, but it isn't much integration! Fascinating working through this and I hope it's correct.

Here, it's reduced to 75% of its original size but still worth viewing full size to look around!

A few of the more interesting items I really enjoyed looking at:

Thanks for looking.

Captured with NINA, pre-processed in APP and processed in PixInsight.

Final
Original
B

B

Title: Custom annotated

Uploaded: ...

Takahashi Epsilons
UK Astro-Imaging

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9692750
PixInsight job	PE9T044C937PWNZF6NFIM5Y1KC6SANUR
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h32m34s.76
RA (top/left)	12h43m54s.72
RA (top/right)	12h20m07s.89
RA (bottom/right)	12h21m27s.37
RA (bottom/left)	12h44m54s.55

Dec (center)	+13°00′58″.5
Dec (top/left)	+15°05′41″.2
Dec (top/right)	+14°39′00″.7
Dec (bottom/right)	+10°54′34″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+11°20′17″.3

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