14 Ιουνίου 2025

NGC 5906 Splinter Galaxy


 

Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533mc
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :9hours & 30minutes with IR-Cut filter from 2nights
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3
 
NGC 5907 (also known as NGC 5906, Knife Edge Galaxy, or Splinter Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 46.5 million light years from Earth German-British astronomer William Herschel discovered the galaxy on 5 May 1788.Its most notable features are its large stellar stream and ultraluminous X-ray source 
 

NGC 5907 has an anomalously low metallicity and few detectable giant stars, being apparently composed almost entirely of dwarf stars. It is a member of the NGC 5866 Group.

NGC 5907 has long been considered a prototypical example of a warped spiral in relative isolation. In 1998, a faint ring structure, likely caused by a disrupted dwarf spheroidal galaxy, was first observed around the galaxy.This challenged the assumption of isolation and suggests the gravitational perturbations induced by the stream progenitor may be the cause for the warp. Then, in 2008, an international team of astronomers announced the presence of an extended double loop tidal stream coiling around the galaxy.  The existence of part of these tidal streams has been recently challenged by some deeper surveys, which show only a single knee-shaped stream as opposed to the full double loop structure.  This shorter stream has a length of 45′ in the sky (or a physical size of 220 kpc) and has a surface brightness ranging from 27.6 mag/arcsec2 at its brightest to 28.8 at its faintest.

An ultraluminous X-ray source, NGC 5907 ULX-1, is located in the galaxy.  This source is also called an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar (ULXP) because it exhibits a rapid pulsation effect. This pulsation has a period of 5.7 days and is caused by a rotating neutron star orbiting a high mass companion.  The neutron star itself has a spin period of 1.13 seconds and seems to be accelerating; its period ten years prior was 1.43 seconds. It is one of the brightest such source yet discovered with a luminosity over 1041 erg/s (7 orders of magnitude more luminous than the Sun). Notably, its peak luminosity is over 1000 times greater than the Eddington luminosity for a neutron star.

from Wikipedia 

 

04 Μαΐου 2025

M 106 & NGC 4217

 

Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533mc
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :9hours & 54minutes with IR-Cut filter
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3
 
 Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert II galaxy, which means that due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole in the center. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

07 Μαρτίου 2025

Rosette Nebula(NGC 2244)

 


Telescope : SW Esprit 100ED
Mount : SW EQ6-ri 
Camera : ZWO 533 mc pro
Guiding : 8x50 SW finder with QHY 5IIL
Filters:   Total exposure time :290minutes with L-Enhance & ir-cut filter
Programs I have used : Nina 3.0 _ PixInsight 1.8.9-3

The Rosette Nebula is a vast emission nebula located about 5,200 light years away. The star forming region lies near a large molecular cloud in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. It is closely associated with the young open star cluster NGC 2244.

Also known as the Satellite Cluster, NGC 2244 appears at the centre of the Rosette. The hot young stars of the cluster were formed from the nebula’s material in the last 5 million years.

The stars in the Satellite Cluster are responsible for the nebula’s glow. Their radiation ionizes the surrounding clouds of nebulosity, causing them to emit their own light. The nebula glows in the red part of the spectrum because the powerful ultraviolet radiation from the stars strips electrons from the nebula’s hydrogen atoms.

The Rosette Nebula is a very active stellar nursery. It is home to numerous Herbig-Haro objects and Herbig Ae/Be stars, Bok globules, T Tauri stars and clusters of newly formed stars. The dark filaments of dust extending toward the centre of the nebula, sometimes called “elephant trunks,” are shaped by the stellar winds and radiation from hot young stars and electromagnetic forces.