Wednesday 20 January 2010

Pea in a haystack

Here's a strange one for you. A little green nebula right next to one of Messier's largest clusters, M34 in Perseus. It appears that some of the stars associated with the cluster have spilled on to my image of Abell 4 here, as it is dusted with some quite evenly-bright and evenly-spaced stars. When you've got access to a 20" scope, you should try out the Abell planetary nebulae if you want a challenge. I was blessed with a clear night so I used it wisely. PS Spot the galaxies.

7 comments:

John said...

I must admit... I can't see any galaxies!

Point some out to me?!

Dr Dan said...

http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_search?v=poss2ukstu_blue&r=02+45+20.00&d=%2B42+34+00.0&e=J2000&h=30&w=40&f=gif&c=none&fov=NONE&v3=

Have a look at that link for the blue STScI survey image. There are 2 with their axes pointing towards the nebula quite close, but at different distances. Small fuzzy things.

Dr Dan said...

http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_search?v=poss2ukstu_blue&r=02+45+20.00&d=%2B42+34+00.0&e=J2000&h=30&w=40&f=gif&c=none&fov=NONE&v3=

Dr Dan said...

Sorry link doesn't work.

the rest of it is...

NONE&v3=

and you must copy and paste it all in!

Dr Dan said...

aa - I take offence to spam, I guess that was the intention?

John said...

nope! even comparing it with that image I can't spot the galaxies on your image :)

Is your image the same orientation as the STScl survey image?

John said...

well, maybe... looks a little brown in your image?

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