June EAA Targets

 Summary  Easy: M51, M63 and M13;  Intermediate: M87 and M101;  Difficult: Abell2151 and Arp274;  Deep Southern: NGC5128 and Abell3526.

 

Easy: M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy)  (13h 31m  / +47d 04'),  M63 (Sunflower Galaxy) (13h 17m  / +41d 54') and  M13 (Great Globular in Hercules)  (16h 43m  / +36d 25')- Note: approximate JNOW co-ordinates.

 

 

M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy)

As galaxy season winds down, June is still a good month to look at the celebrated face-on spiral galaxy M51, which is easily visible soon after  dark. The appropriately named Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici is about 30 million light years away, with spiral arms that exhibit the effect of interaction with the compact galaxy NGC5195, passing behind M51. The spiral arms show bright clumpy HII regions of star formation as well as dark dust lanes. On deeper views of M51, you can see the dark dust lanes in one spiral arm stretch all the way into NGC5195. Here is a recent 8 minute monochrome capture with my AT130EDT @ f/7.0  and an ASI290MM mini, and no filters: 



M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy, ASI290MM mini/ AT130EDT); 32 x 15s

One challenge is to identify the tiny and much more distant 15th mag. background galaxy IC4278, at the 10 o'clock position relative to the centre of M51, and roughly halfway to the northeast (upper left) corner of the frame. 


M63 (Sunflower Galaxy)

As the month begins, and high overhead after dark for northern observers, M63 is another prominent spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. It is also a member of the M51 group of galaxies, about 30 million light years distant.  The Sunflower galaxy derives its name from the lack of well defined structure in its spiral arms in the visible spectrum, with their flocculent and attractive appearance reminiscent of a sunflower. Using a long exposure, one challenge for this target,  is to capture the two or three dark parallel lanes just south of the galactic disk. Here is an unfiltered  6 minute capture taken with my AT130EDT @ f/7.0 and ASI290MM mini at 300 gain, which (barely) shows hints of those dark lanes south (below) of the disk.



M63 (Sunflower Galaxy, ASI290MM mini/ AT130EDT); 24 x 15s


M13 (Great Globular in Hercules)

Towards the east after dark early in June, and about 25,000 light years distant, M13 is the brightest globular cluster north of the celestial and an easy target for EAA. This globular covers an apparent field smaller than the moon and is composed of several hundred thousand Population II stars, typically very old and with low metal content. Even a short exposure such as this 60sec capture with my AT130EDT @f/7  and ASI290MM mini at 300 gain, will show the increasing density of stars towards the centre of the globular. 


M13(Great Globular in Hercules, ASI290MM mini/ AT130EDT); 12 x 5s





 

Intermediate: M87 (Virgo A) (12h 32m  / +12d 15'),  M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) (14h 04m  / +54d 14')



M87 (Virgo A) 

High in the sky after dark early in the month, and visible to the southwest  for northern observers, M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy, about 50 million light years distant and one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster.  A distinctive feature of this galaxy is the relativistic jet of matter that is thought to be ejected from a supermassive black hole at its core. Here is a cropped image from a brief 3.5 minute capture of M87 using my AT130EDT at f/7.0 and ASI290MM mini at 300 gain, which shows its relativistic jet at approximately the 2 o'clock position. Observing the jet can be a challenge against the background galactic disk, particularly in longer exposures.


M87 ( ASI290MM mini/ AT130EDT); 42 x 5s





M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy)

Visible towards the north after dark early in June, M101  (along with M33 and M83) is  a face-on classic spiral galaxy. Located in Ursa Major and known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 is 20-25 million light years distant and almost twice the diameter of the Milky Way, covering an apparent field of about half a degree, the same size as the full moon. Its very well defined spiral arms show numerous star forming HII regions visible as nebulous patches in this recent 13 minute capture taken with my 130EDT @ f/7.0, and a Player One Apollo M Mini at 300 gain. One challenge for this target is to try and capture the dark dust lanes defining the edges of the bright inner spiral arms. M101 has also seen three supernova in the last 15 years, including a bright Type II supernova last year that was easily captured via EAA.


M101 ( Pinwheel Galaxy, Apollo-M Mini/130EDT ); 52 x 15s









Difficult: Abell2151 (Hercules Galaxy Cluster) (16h 06m  / +17d 39') and  Arp274  (14h 36m  / +05d 14')




Abell2151 (Hercules Galaxy Cluster)

The Hercules Galaxy Cluster is rich in spiral galaxies, and is about 500 million light years distant. Here is a 6 minute unfiltered capture of the central part of Abell2151, taken with my AT130EDT triplet reduced to f/5.5 and ASI290MM mini at 300 gain and showing stars down to about mag 18.3 fairly easily, but the principal feature of the cluster is the multitude of galaxies, which  include several interacting Arp galaxies (highlighted in the image): The elliptical galaxy NGC6047 is in the middle of the FOV, and the spiral just north (above) the centre of the FOV is NGC6045. NGC4045 has a prominent tiny companion galaxy to its east and both are part of Arp71. In addition, to the east (left) of NGC6045 is the colliding pair of spiral galaxies, NGC6050 and IC1179, which comprise Arp272. One challenge is to spot a third (unnamed)interacting galaxy, just above (north) of NGC6050, that appears to be interacting with NGC6050 and is part of Arp272. There is a third Arp pair in the FOV (Arp122) towards the right (west) of the frame, and  a fourth Arp pair of interacting galaxies (Arp172) in Abell2151 is just outside the FOV to the south.  So many interesting galaxies to see in this cluster!


Abell2151 (Hercules Galaxy Cluster, ASI290MM mini/AT130EDT); 24 x 15s





Arp274

Arp274, also known as the NGC567 group, is a triplet system of galaxies in Virgo. Visible towards the southeast after dark early in the month for northern observers, Arp274 is approximately 400 million light years distant. It was originally thought that the three galaxies in the group were interacting, hence the entry in the Arp catalog. However,  redshift measurement of each of the components suggest that the middle galaxy (the brightest of the trio) is about 65 million light years further away than the other two. Here is a cropped 6 minute unfiltered capture of Arp274 at the north (top) of the frame, taken with my C8 reduced to f/3.7 and ASI290MM mini at 300 gain. One challenging object faintly visible as a patch towards the south (bottom) and eastern (left) edges of the frame, is the 17th mag.  galaxy PGC52141 also known as UGC9385.


Arp274 (C8, ASI290MM mini/ C8); 24 x 15s







Deep Southern: NGC5139 (Omega Centauri) (13h 28m  / -47d 36') and  Abell3526 (Centaurus Cluster)  (12h 50m  / -41d 27')




NGC5139 (Omega Centauri)

Omega Centauri is almost due south after dark in early June, and is only a few degrees above the horizon, for northern observers below about latitude 40N. Located in the southern constellation Centaurus and about 16,000 light years distant, this magnificent globular cluster is the largest (covering over 36 arcminutes), and brightest in the sky. Here is a 3 minute unfiltered capture taken only a few minutes after NGC5139 culminated at 9 degrees above my southern horizon with my AT130EDT at its native f/7 and Player One Apollo-M Mini at 300 gain. Even a single 15sec snapshot can show it well to the core at this low altitude.


NGC5139 (Omega Centauri, Apollo-M Mini / AT130EDT); 12 x 15s





Abell3526 (Centaurus Cluster)

A few degrees north of Omega Centauri,  and about 170 million light years distant, the Centaurus galaxy cluster is also almost due south after dark early in the month. Abell3526 contains hundreds of galaxies, and its brightest member, NGC4696 is a giant elliptical, seen at the centre of this recent 6 minute unfiltered capture of the central part of the cluster, taken with my AT130EDT @ f/7.0 and Player One Apollo-M Mini at 300 gain. A difficult challenge for this target is to identify some of the smaller galaxies that surround NGC4696 - I was able to identify just a few, such as PGC43269 to the west (left), and a faint spiral, PGC43323 to the southeast, both of which are about 3 arcminutes from the centre of NGC4696.


Abell3526 (Centaurus Cluster, Apollo-M Mini/AT130EDT); 24 x 15s










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