| Object Data |
| Description |
NGC4038 and NGC4039 are a pair of interacting galaxies
that have recently experienced an extremely close encounter. The contrast
has been selectively stretched on this image to enhance the faint tails of
stars flung out by the event. The diagonal noise is an artifact caused by
flexure in the mount between the guide scope and the imaging scope, and the
large number of relatively short exposures required by the presence of a
bright (8.7 magnitude) star in the field.
|
| Constellation |
Corvus the Crow |
| Right Ascension |
12h 2m 3s |
| Declination |
-18° 53' 2" |
| Magnitude |
10.9 |
| Angular size |
3.4 arcminutes |
| Distance |
25.5 megaparsecs (83 million light years) |
| Radial Velocity |
1624 kilometers per second |
| Image Data |
| Photographer |
Fred Lehman |
| Main Scope |
Meade 12" LX200 @ f/5.0 (1525mm) |
| Guide Scope |
Orion 120mm refractor @ f/3.75 |
| Guide Camera |
SBIG STV |
| Imaging Camera |
Starlight Xpress MX7C |
| Resolution |
752 x 580 @ 1.2 arcseconds per pixel |
| Exposure |
Twenty-six exposures of two minutes each. Aligned,
stacked, and processed with AstroArt. |
| Date |
May 31, 2003 |
| Location |
Kye's Star Farm in Highlands County near the town
of Venus, Florida. |
