Finally a couple of really crisp clear night and no moon! My targets for the 18th were Jellyfish nebula in Gemini and, while I was waiting for the meridian to pass, I had a look at a pair of interacting galaxies in Taurus, NGC 1410 and NGC 1409, plus a few minutes on Messier 100, which has a supernova visible, first reported on the 7th Jan.
The Jellyfish Nebula, IC443, image is based on around 3 hours of data, 180 s at ISO 1600.
Wikipedia:IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. On the plane of the sky, it is located near the star Eta Geminorum. Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth.
The next image shows you need a lot more data sometimes! I only took around 30 mins in total, so, with the size of aperature of my telescope, all we have is fuzzy blobs.
Still relatively few exposures (8 x 180 s at ISO 1600), but a much better image of Messier 100. Various fuzzies around it are some of the many thousands, millions, billions of galaxies outside our own. On 7th Jan it was reported that there had been a supernova in M100. It can just be seen on the right of the core in the inset.
Wikipedia: Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321) is an example of a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy located within the southern part of constellation Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located approximately 55 million light-yearsdistant from Earth and has a diameter of 107,000 light years, roughly 60% the size of the Milky Way.
The Jellyfish Nebula, IC443, image is based on around 3 hours of data, 180 s at ISO 1600.
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| Jellyfish Nebula in Gemini |
IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core.
The next image shows you need a lot more data sometimes! I only took around 30 mins in total, so, with the size of aperature of my telescope, all we have is fuzzy blobs.
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| A Pair of interacting galaxies, honest! |
Still relatively few exposures (8 x 180 s at ISO 1600), but a much better image of Messier 100. Various fuzzies around it are some of the many thousands, millions, billions of galaxies outside our own. On 7th Jan it was reported that there had been a supernova in M100. It can just be seen on the right of the core in the inset.
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| Messier 100, with the supernova near the core (see magnified inset) |
Seven supernovae have been identified in M100. In March 1901 the first supernova of M100 was found, SN 1901B, a type I supernova found with a magnitude of 15.6 at 110"W and 4"N from its nucleus. SN 1914A was then discovered in February to March 1914; its type was undeterminable but was found with a magnitude of 15.7 at 24"E and 111"S from its nucleus. Observations of M100 from February 21, 1960 to June 17, 1960 led to the discovery of SN 1959E, another type I supernova,with the faintest magnitude, 17.5, among the five found, at 58"E and 21"S from its nucleus. On April 15, 1979, the first type II supernova found in the M100 galaxy was discovered; however the star SN 1979C faded quickly; later observations from x-ray to radio wavelengths revealed its remnant. The fifth supernova was discovered February 7, 2006; the star SN 2006X had a magnitude of 15.3 when discovered two weeks before fading to magnitude +17. Supernova SN 2019ehk, discovered on April 29, 2019, reached a peak magnitude of approximately 15.8. The seventh supernova, SN 2020oi, was discovered on January 7, 2020.
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