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Spiral Galaxies ccd astrophotography images
Galaxies - Spirals
CCD Astrophotography
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Most galaxies belong to Clusters, groups of galaxies containing a few to several thousand members. Our Galaxy is a member of the Local Group, a collection of around 30 galaxies, including M31 and M110, and numerous dwarf elliptical clusters. One of the nearest clusters is the Virgo Cluster, some 50 million light years away. The clusters are also members of superclusters.
M101 a face on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. 200mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 1 Sept. 1998. Exposure time of 4 min.
Galaxies outside the Local Group show redshifts in their spectra, which indicates that they are receding from us. The velocity of recession, related to the redshift, is proportional to their distance from us in a relationship determined by Hubble.
NGC 4725 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 17 May 1999. Exposure time of 10 min.
NGC 5907 edge-on galaxy in Draco. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 1 Sept. 1998. Exposure time of 4 min.
NGC 2903 spiral galaxy in Sextans. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 17 April 1999. Summed images of 8 and 10 min. exposure times.
The recession of the galaxies is usually interpreted as a general expansion of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory the Universe came into being in an instant of time from nothing some 15 billion years ago. Hence, the further distant we image galaxies  then an earlier picture of the Universe can be developed. The current view is that the Universe is accelerating in it's expansion and ultimately the lights will go out.
M88 a Sc type spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. A member of the Virgo Cluster. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 17 April 1999. Composite of 4 by 4min. images.
NGC 7331 spiral galaxy and adjacent NGC 7335 in Pegasus. 200 mm Schmidt-Newtonian image at prime focus on 18 Nov. 1998. Exposure time of 4 min.
M102 (NGC 5866) is a controversial Messier catalogue member. Almost edge-on, lenticular galaxy in Draco. Mag:10 Size: 5 x 2 arcmin. S/N image of 1 Sept. 1998. 4 min. exposure.

M99 in the Virgo Cluster is a Sc type galaxy in Coma Berenices. Mag. 9.9. Size: 5 x 5 arcmin. S/N image of 4 min. on 17 April 1999. 4 min. exposure.
Much of the technical information in the pages is taken from Norton's Star Atlas and Reference Handbook, 19th edition, edited by Ian Ridpath, published by Longman, 1998.
Detailed information on Messier and his list of (M) deep-sky objects can be found at the Messier Index.
This page contains images courtesy of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, CA. All rights reserved.

 

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