Posted on 02/12/2021 2:50:25 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: This gorgeous island universe lies about 85 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Fornax. Inhabited by young blue star clusters, the tightly wound spiral arms of NGC 1350 seem to join in a circle around the galaxy's large, bright nucleus, giving it the appearance of a cosmic eye. In fact, NGC 1350 is about 130,000 light-years across. That makes it as large or slightly larger than the Milky Way. For earth-based astronomers, NGC 1350 is seen on the outskirts of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, but its estimated distance suggests that it is not itself a cluster member. Of course, the bright spiky stars in the foreground of this telescopic field of view are members of our own spiral Milky Way galaxy.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Whrn I consider the heavens...
God is great.
Thank you very much for posting these photos. I look forward to it every day.
You might not want to shout that out on a crowded bus. But in retrospect, when you consider the scope of his creation and the sheer magnitude of just one galaxy among trillions of others or more, how can anyone think he cares whether one religious/political faction on this insignificant spec of dust existing for an eyeblink of time matters more than any other?
I aways love the fact that the effects of the mirror holders on the telescope make the brightest point sources of light into crosses.
Magnificent!
And if you look closely in the fullsized image, there’s around ten other galaxies hiding in the background.
They're caused by the secondary mirror on Newtonian scopes and objects obstructing the objective.. Not all telescopes cause these diffraction spikes in such an obvious way. In addition, some are added with post processing software. They're not real regardless and personally I always avoid using software which manipulates stars in this manner.
I love it because it’s a subtle reminder of the creator of them.
I am glad many seem to like the photos. I did not take them, I only post them.
Love these.
You can imagine what those living in the NGC 1350 system are thinking when they look back at our Milky Way Galaxy.
So true. Everything currently going on seems to fade when contemplating such glory.
The universe and these photos never cease to amaze me. Thank you! ;-)
If you use the steps in post #1 to zoom in you can see numerous spiral galaxies in the background as you mention. The other bright objects are probably elliptical galaxies.
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