NGC 660, Polar Ring Galaxy in Pisces

[AndyG]

Here is my first image from the 12.5" scope from the remote observatory in NM.

NGC 660 is classified as a "polar ring galaxy," meaning that it has a belt of gas and stars around its center that it ripped from a near neighbor during a clash about one billion years ago.The first polar ring galaxy was observed in 1978 and only around a dozen more have been discovered since then, making them something of a cosmic rarity. - NASA.gov

Click image for higher resolution version and image acquisition details.

[AstroGeek]

Andy,

With your remote set-up and acquisition/processing skills, you have completely crossed over into the realm of elite astrophotographers. Even at full-resolution, the detail is tack sharp and the background is like black glass. Congrats on your achievement and we all look forward to many of your fabulous images being posted here.

Last meeting, I mentioned a cool planetary nebula with a galaxy obscured in the background. I found that it is called Abell 70 and is located in Aquila.

Keep up your awesome work!!

Steve

[Pete]

Awesome indeed Andy.

I'm working approximately the same chip size and the same focal length, but my short exposure stop action images are a wee-bit nosier than yours.

It's always a blast to see a myriad of undocumented galaxies appear in deep exposures. Sort of like in the old days when a kid opened a box of crackerjacks to discover the surprise inside.

Pete

[Bruce D]

Andy it doesn't get any better than that! Nice subject too!

[WCGucfa]

So beautiful, Andy. Sooooo beautiful.
Congratulations on your new "setup."

Above all, thanks for sharing!

Bill G.

[Apollo XX]

Really nice, Andy!

[DonB]

I loved your talk the other night and now to see the results. Your first image is stunning and I (and I am sure other members) await the treasure of images to come. But to think this is your first image from your setup is amazing. Can't wait to see what follows. Superb.

Don

[mrgizmo65]

Andy you alone are major reason why the activity on the bulletin board is up lately. It' seams everybody wants to see these jaw dropping images. I think we have just about run out of adjectives to describe your work. Have you ever considered submitting them to Sky and Telescope. I'll bet national geographic would print them and the boys at nasa could learn a thing or two. Again I want to thank you for sharing. Jerry

[AndyG]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys.

Last meeting, I mentioned a cool planetary nebula with a galaxy obscured in the background. I found that it is called Abell 70 and is located in Aquila.

What a cool target, thanks for the tip, I put it on my list. Looks like it is best imaged in June, just before the Southwest monsoon comes in. I'll be unable to image from July-Sept due to the monsoon.

It's always a blast to see a myriad of undocumented galaxies appear in deep exposures.

Yeah, that blows my mind every time, realizing each of those hundreds of tiny specks in the background is a collection of hundreds of billions of stars with likely hundreds of billions of planets.

[rjbokleman]

Oh my!!

I counted at least 6 additional galaxies in this one. Amazing!! Can anyone pick out more?

Thanks so much for posting!

P.S. I just did a little further research on this. To put this in perspective the apparent size of this is 4.6 x 1.7 arc-min. Very tiny from our perspective here on earth and yet your scope has brought it and it's detail to the point you'd think it was the size of the full moon!

I second Jerry's earlier comments to to give you a comparison guys...look at this image from the Worldwide Telescope by comparison. http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/webcl ... ov=0.35156 It's not even close!