Clint Lemasters caught this spectacular shot of the Perseus Cluster (Abell 426) with his SVX152T in Perseus. Located 240 million light-years away from Earth, this cluster of galaxies is one of the most massive objects in the known universe. It contains thousands of galaxies inside a vast cloud of multimillion-degree gas. It has been discovered by astronomers, that pressure waves sent out by the black hole in the cluster, cause ripples in the hot gas. These ripples can be translated into musical notes which humans cannot hear. Some of these notes, are 57 octaves below middle C. The sound waves seem to be generated by the inflation of bubbles of relativistic plasma, from the central active galactic nucleus in NGC 1275, a type-cD galaxy.
According to Clint:
"This image is a collection of 285 five-minute exposures totaling almost 24 hours of imaging this target over four nights form my backyard in Mobile, AL. There are so many galaxies in this photo, some of which even failed to make it into popular cataloguing software. Go "pixel peeping" and discover some galaxies!"
"The Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, is one of the most massive and well-known galaxy clusters in the universe. It lies in the constellation Perseus, about 240 million light-years away from Earth. As a prominent member of the larger Perseus-Pisces Supercluster, it contains thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity, making it a fascinating object of study in astronomy. The brightest galaxy in the cluster is NGC 1275, a large elliptical galaxy at its center, known for its active nucleus and jet structures, which are powered by a supermassive black hole."
Other Designations: Abell 426, NGC 1275 Cluster, LGG 88.
Details:
Telescopes: Stellarvue SVX152T
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Duo
Mount: iOptron GEM45
Filters: SVBony UV/IR Cut 2"
Accessories:
- Stellarvue SFFX-1
- Askar 5-in-1 M54 Filter Drawer
Software:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP)
- Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
- Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator
- Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator
- Russell Croman Astrophotography StarXTerminator
- Steffen Hirtle GraXpert
Location: Mobile AL, US
*For more details and an in-depth look at this image, visit Clint's AstroBin.
References:
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, October 4). Perseus Cluster. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_Cluster
Euclid’s view of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. (n.d.). https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_s_view_of_the_Perseus_cluster_of_galaxies
A universe of sound. (n.d.). https://chandra.si.edu/sound/perseus.html
Wikipedia contributors. (2024b, December 2). NGC 1275. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1275#Properties