Galaxies

Galaxy is a system of hundreds of billions of stars. Most galaxies have spiral arms.  So does our home galaxy Milky Way. Some galaxies have elliptic or irregular shape. 

Below is Andromeda galaxy Messier 31 and its neighbor galaxies M32 and M110.  M31 is closest large galaxy to Milky Way and its distance is 2.5 million light years.  Picture was taken 1st of November 2021 with SkyWatcher 80/600, exposures 13 x 5 minutes, ISO1600.


Zoom into center of M31.

Below are details from M31. NGC 206 is an area of bright newborn stars.  Some globular star clusters of M31 is marked

Details of Andromeda galaxy M31  24th of September 2023. Telescope TS Photon 200/800 with coma corrector and camera Canon Eos 80Da. Exposures 17 x 100 seconds, Iso 800. 

Galaxy M33 in constellation of Triangulum. M33 has very clear spiral arms.  Distance 3 million light years

Galaxy M33  imaged at  Kirkkonummi 24th of September 2023. Telescope TS Photon 200/800 with coma corrector and camera Canon Eos 80Da. Exposures 28 x 100 seconds, Iso 800. 

Below left: Spiral Galaxy M81 in constellation of Big Dipper. Distance 12 million light years.  Below right: Galaxy M82 in constellation of Big Dipper. Distance 12 million light years. This galaxy has something special. It is very bright and it contains a lot of young stars. 

Below galaxy M51 in constellation of Big Dipper. Distance 37 million light years. Here the smaller galaxy has done close passing of the larger galaxy. Picture 29.4.2022 has exposures 10 x 3 min 44 sec, ISO800. Celestron 8F6, Canon Eso 80Da, astro modified. 

Galaxy Messier 101, distance 21 million ligth years. Picture 1.5.2022 has exposures 10 x 3min44sec, ISO800. Celestron 8F6, Canon Eso 80Da, astro modified.

Galaxy NGC 7331 is in constellation of  Pegasus. Distance 40 million light years. Picture was taken 7.12.2020 with Celestron 8 F6.3 optics. Exposures were 10 x 3 minutes, ISO1600.<br>

Galaxy NGC 4565 is called Needle-galaxy. It is in constellation of Coma Berenices. Distance 43 million light years. Picture was taken 21.3.2021 with Celestron 8 F6.3 optics. Exposures 6 x 3 minutes , ISO800. 

Galaxy NGC 2403 in constellation of Camelopardalis. Distance 10 million light years. Picture was taken  19.3.2021.

Galaxy  NGC 4631 is called whale-galaxy. It is in constellation of Canes Venatici. Distance 30 million light years. Picture was taken  8.4.2021 with Celestron 8 F6.3 optics. Exposures 6 x 3 minutes, ISO800. 

Galaxy NGC891 in constellation of Andromeda is seen sideways. Dark dust clouds cover the glow of the stars. Distance 27 million light years. Sombrero Galaxy M104 is in constellation of Virgo, distance 28 million light years.
The distance of NGC 6946 Fireworks galaxy is 25 million light years. This galaxy has often supernovas.  Picture taken 14.9.2021, Celestron 8 F6.3, Canon Eos 80Da, exposures 10 x 3 minutes, Iso1600.
The distance of NGC 106 galaxy is 23 million light years. This galaxy has active nucleus. Picture taken 6.4.2013, Celestron 8 F6.3, Canon Eos 60Da, exposures 5 x 6 minutes, Iso1600, Baader UHC-S filter

Galaxies M66, M65 and NGC 3628 form a galaxy group called the Leo Triplet. Distance 35 million light years

The distance to galaxy NGC2903 is 30 million light years. Also galaxy group Arp 316 is in constellation of Leo. Distance 80 million light years.  

Galaxy Messier 87 is a gigantic elliptical galaxy in constellation of Virgo, in the center of Virgo galaxy cluster. Distance 55 million light years. It has a supermassive black hole in its center. In this picture you can see a jet in one a clock direction, coming from the black hole. When stars and matter fall in to black hole they are first going to a rotating disk round the black hole. On the poles of this system jets of matter are rushing into space. In the embedded images you see the jet also by Hubble Space Telescope and the black hole by Event Horizon Telescope. The mass of this gigantic black hole is 6.5 billion times the mas of the Sun. This black hole eats matter the amount of 90 Earths per day. The size is 40 billion kilometers, which is 266 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth. The <I>event horizon</I>, is the boundary where nothing can escape, not even the light. Picture taken 231st of March 2021 with Celestron 8 F6.3 optics. Exposures 5 x 3 minutes ISO800, and stacked with DSS. Camera Canon Eos 80D astro modified. 

Compact galaxy group Stephan's Quintet in constellation of Pegasus. Galaxy  NGC 7320 in front, distance 39 million light years.  Other galaxies in group, NGC 7319, NGC 7318, NGC 7317 are at distance of  210-340 million light years.  Galaxies NGC 7318 A and B are having a collision