Got some good conditions this new moon
...so, even though I don't have a 32" scope in the atacama... I brazenly and defiantly
pointed my little fast F3.8 scope and little sensitive camera, at this tiny pair of interacting galaxies in Aquarius
Well..
..despite my woefully inadequate equipment at almost sea level, I was very pleased with the outcome and quite excited to reveal the full extent of the faint twin tidal tails and significant detail deep with in the two small galaxies
The upper galaxy in this image, NGC 7285, is 2' in size while NGC 7284 below it is just 1.5' across but together these two galaxies in Aquarius are performing a close gravitational dance and the encounter has produced two (faint) magnificent sweeping broad tidal tails (to the left and a fainter one to the right in the image). This cosmic gravitational stretching has resulted in stars and gas being flung out and strewn across an area of sky measuring some 10' X 3'. So, at the estimated distance of 210 Million light years to this pair of galaxies, that means the two galaxies have spread across more than 300,000 light years of space, or three times the size of our Milky Way galaxy!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do...ah sigh..our amazing Universe
all capture details are under the image.
Cosmic dance Arp 93 (full res close up crop)
NGC 7284/5 (Full Frame) lots of galaxies all over the field
