Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4839  ·  NGC 4848  ·  NGC 4874  ·  NGC 4889  ·  NGC 4895  ·  NGC 4921  ·  NGC 4931  ·  NGC 4944
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Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656, Stefan Böckler
Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656
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Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656, Stefan Böckler
Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656
Powered byPixInsight

Coma Galaxy Cluster - Abell 1656

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

The Hubble Deep Field and its successors have always massively impressed me. Clusters of galaxies might not be as aesthetically pleasing as nice nebulae, but thinking about the scale of space and time in these fields of galaxies is really astonishing. Now, I don't have a space telescope at hand to image an FOV as small and distant as in the Deep Fields. So maybe an image of the Coma Galaxy Cluster (Abell 1656) is as close as I can get to my own personal Deep Field picture. The Coma Cluster contains over 1000 galaxies, is about 300 mio ly away and has a diameter of about 20 mio ly.

Capturing was a bit different this time. We have a nightly curfew again. Since I can't image from my own backyard and have to use someone else's, I just startet the sequence at 9.30 pm before curfew and left. After the curfew at 5 am I returned, hoping everything would be fine and in place. My two major concerns were unforecasted rain which would turn my telescope from a light bucket into an actual bucket of water. Additionally I feared that the focus might slip and I wouldn't have the opportunity to refocus. This has also influenced the selection of the target since for a galaxy cluster the goal is to get as many fuzzies as possible. A slight shift in focus isn't too bad here, since the targets are, well, fuzzy anyway, right? Fortunately, the HFR of the last frame was exactly the same as in the first frame, so no problem. In the end all went fine, no gear or humans hurt.

Enjoy!

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