Observation by David Davies: Arp 426, The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2023 Jan 16 - 23:33

Uploaded

2023 Jan 24 - 14:49

Objects

NGC1281
NGC1278
NGC1274
NGC1275
NGC1273
NGC1272
NGC1270
NGC1268
NGC1267
NGC1271
NGC1282
NGC1283
NGC1279
NGC1277
NGC1276
The Perseus Cluster (Abell cluster 426)

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Constellation

Perseus

Field centre

RA: 03^h19^m
Dec: +41°32'
Position angle: +2°44'

Field size

0°44' × 0°30'

Equipment

10" Ritchey-Chretien telescope
X 0,7 reducer to give 1400mm focal length
ZWO ASI 294MC camera
SW EQ8 mount

Exposure

65 x 2-min

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

Arp 426, The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

Title

Arp 426, The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

About this image

Another exercise in trying to go deep with the ASI 294 camera and my cleaned and adjusted RC10 scope.

This proved a most difficult target, both in acquisition and processing. The field of view has few bright stars, so automatic focussing failed; the focus algorithm kept trying to focus on the brightest galaxies and got the wrong focus point. The solution was to move to nearby stars and focus there.

Processing gave me the (now) usual problems of colour-calibrating images from this one-shot camera. One issue was revealed by APP in that the default offset value is insufficient to prevent truncation of the blue and red data at the black point. I've yet to determine a better value for the offset.

Despite all that, I'm pleased with the image and have learned much from it. I've not seen so many NGC objects in one glance.

Files associated with this observation

Abell 426, The Perseus Cluster-web.jpg (1.2 MB)

Like this image

David Strange, David Basey, Alan Thomas, Graham Winstanley, Simon Paul Davis, Ron Johnson

Comments

Alan Thomas, 2023 Jan 25 - 08:41 UTC

David

A very good image of a highly interesting set of objects. Thanks.

Alan

Martin Lewis, 2023 Jan 25 - 21:05 UTC

Stunning, David. Good work,

Martin

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