Abell 2151 - Hercules Galaxy Cluster

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGE VIEW (2667x2000) 

Scope: Celestron 9.25 Edge 235 mm at f/7, Location: Laguna Mountains, CA  25 May 2014  Camera: ST8300M

Exposure: 17 x 10 min  (2x2 bin),  8 x 4.5 min (3x3 bin) RGB exposures.

Processing: Data Collection -  CCDSoft (as FITs).  Calibrated, stacked (Kappa Sigma Combine) Deep Sky Stacker. LRGB channel registration, central gradient removal, and color equalization - Astroart.  Curves, Levels, LRGB combine and finishing  - Photoshop.  Color calibration using eXcalibrator. This image is a straightforward LRGB combine with Luminance layering / LAB color saturation on the RGB channels.   Final Image size is approximately 2667x2000.

North is up in this image.  The galaxy cluster Abell 2151 is part of one of two galaxy super clusters  in Hercules. This field is in the Southern super cluster along the Serpens border and really only shows the core of Abell 2151 since it extends beyond the field of this image. The Northern super cluster is along the Corona Borealis border. The image field shows a number of galaxies and several interacting groups. Some of these galaxies are identified in an annotated image here.  This Southern  galaxy super cluster  is  centered about 500 million light years distant from Earth - some individuals distances are in the annotated image  in parenthesis  and given in billions of light years.   The Horizontal FOV is 38'.

Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 16h 05m 24s Dec: +17°46'00"

All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003 - 2014

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