Monday, January 14, 2019

imaged M49 (Halifax)

The Burke-Gaffney Observatory imaged M49, a big galaxy in the constellation Virgo. One of the Messier objects I had logged but once (back in early May 2013). I wanted to return for another look.

galaxy Messier 49 in luminance

Luminance only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left.

Messier 49 aka NGC 4472 and Arp 134 is a smooth uniform elliptical. Blinding bright core. What would it be like on a world there with such a bright galactic core?! Surely the night sky would be very bright... The large galaxy is oriented south-east to north-west.

The outer limits of the canted galaxy extend further out than what I can show in this image. I still struggle with Liberator and drawing out faint details.

There are many little neighbouring and distant background galaxies in this simple image.

I missed it given the star-like appearance but SkyTools 3 Professional noted NGC 4464 to the north-west, near the top-right corner of the digital image. On closer examination, it is a compact almond-shape with a bright core, oriented north-south.

Between is the perfectly round fuzz ball of PCG 41180.

To the west-north-west there appears to be a double galaxy, two faint tight objects, with a dimmer one to the north. ST3P only marks the lower object: NGC 4465.

Due west of the big galaxy, is the medium-bright round galaxy of NGC 4467. It is just east of a star making for a good comparison of faint fuzzy and blotted star.

South-west, about the same distance from the core as 4467, but fainter, is PCG 41185.

Further out is the very faint LEDA 1333286.

And still further out is a large spiral, just at the edge of the frame, at the bottom-right. That's MCG 1-32-76.

Curious NGC 4470 is nearly south, an amorphous mottled blob. It looks like a spiral that's been smashed (previously seen).

The big, round, uniform, but extremely faint MCG 1-32-84 shows to the south-east of M49.

And lastly, to the north-east, I see a somewhat large round fuzzy with a bright core: PCG 41264.

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Wikipedia link: Messier 49.

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