Deep Sky Object in Spring
NGC4038,4039 (The Antennae in Corvus)


Date & Time: Feb 3 2017, from 26:35 to 27:09 JST(+0900)
Composed 12 shots with 3 minutes exposed
Optical: Meade 25cm(10") Schmidt-Cassegrain with conversion lens (f=1600mm, F6.3)
Auto-guided with Meade LX200 Equatorial & Pictor 201XT
Digital Camera: Nikon D810A
Location: Ooizumi, Hokuto city, Yamanashi pref.

Camera Settings: Recording Format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(4080×4080)
Device Size...20×20mm
Sensitivity...ISO6400, White Balance...Daylight


NGC4038 / Galaxy, type SB?(s:)m pec II-III
R.A.12h 01m 52.8s (2000.0)
Dec.-18°51' 54" (2000.0)
Apparent Size5.3'×3.1'
Radial Velocity+1663km/s
Magnitude10.9
Distance63 million light yrs.
Group of GalaxiesNGC4038 Group
Other IDsUGCA 264, ESO 572-47
Arp 244, MCG -3-31-14
PGC 37967
NGC4039 / Galaxy, type SA(s)m pec III:
R.A.12h 01m 53.8s (2000.0)
Dec.-18°53' 06" (2000.0)
Apparent Size3.1'×1.6'
Radial Velocity+1655km/s
Magnitude11.1
Distance63 million light yrs.
Group of GalaxiesNGC4038 Group
Other IDsUGCA 265, ESO 572-48
MCG -3-31-15, PGC 37969
This shot shows you a famous pair of galaxies in collision at the western edge of Corvus. A galaxy in north (upper) is NGC4038, and southern (lower) one has a number of NGC4039. Both galaxies have apparent sizes of about 5 arc minutes and 10th or 11th magnitudes, your naked eyes can detect the pair as very dimmed two nebula-like lights snuggling up each other through large sized telescopes.
This interacting galaxy pair has two "Ring tale" structures being stretched in the eastern region, the characteristic structure gives the pair a nickname of "Ring tale Galaxy" or "The Antennae".
The image tells us the two faint ring tales stretching toward southeast and northeast. A lower (southern side) long tail has a visual length of 13 arc minutes, it's equivalent over 230 thousand light years in real length. It's considered that these anomalous structures have been formed from flicked stars by the collision. And the image shows you several lumps of bluish lights paralleling along an arm of NGC4038. Those lights are considered as "Star burst" regions where new stars are born intensively raised by the complicated inter-galactic interaction. It's a scene of grandeur head-on impact in distant space about 63 millions light years away.



NGC4030
Around NGC4045 & NGC4073

Copyright(c) 2017 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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