Located 290 Million Light Years from earth is a group of five galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet. In this video we attempt to image (photograph) Stephan's Quintet using the 10" Newtonian Telescope on an Atlas EQ-G Equatorial Mount. This is the furthest object we have attempted to image and we were relatively happy with the results. By way of comparison, we show a series of galaxies we have photographed, starting from the nearest to earth to the furthest: Andromeda Galaxy, Bodes & Cigar Galaxy, Fireworks Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy, M95 and M96, NGC 2276, and finally Stephan's Quintet. The imaging equipment used include: Orion G26 CMOS Color Camera; Orion 10" Dobsonian Telescope (removed from Alt/Az Mount and placed on Equatorial Mount); Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount,; Orion Starshoot Mini 6.3mp CMOS Color Guiding Camera; Orion 60mm Guide Scope; Orion P1 Polar Alignment Camera. Software used: Sharpcap and PHD2, with post processing done in Photoshop. In this video we also collimate the telescope.
Up until this point, the furthest object we had photographed is a Galaxy known as NGC 2276 located 120 Million Light Years from Earth. See the video: Going for Deep Space.
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Stephen's Quintet is a fascinating galaxy group located in the constellation Pegasus. It consists o five galaxies, with four of them engaged in a gravitational tug-of-war, creating a stunning cosmic interaction. The galaxies' names are NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, NGC 7319, and NGC 7320. What makes Stephen's Quintet so intriguing is the intricate dance of galactic collisions and interactions as they are locked in a gravitational struggle, causing distortions in their structures and leading to the creation of remarkable tidal tails and bridges of stars and gasses. This has also resulted in bursts of star formations and the creations of several black holes.
Amateurs in the field of astrophotography can capture these distant images due to the improvements in dedicated astrophotography cameras and the software used to capture, stack, process, etc. I am an amateur astrophotographer and learn from others who post tutorials on youtube. My hope is to share the experience of beginning astrophotography to encourage others who may be interested and to provide some educational facts for those who enjoy learning about our universe.
For those interested in Astronomy, this video will resonate as we are exploring deep into the universe and seeing galaxies as they were 290 million years ago. In other words, the photons reaching my telescope left the galaxies we are looking at 290 million years ago. Both the time involved as well as the distances covered are truly mind blowing.
We hope you enjoy this video and invite you to come along on future Adventures of Shadow.
