Perseus Galaxy Cluster (Abell 426)

Loc­ated around 235 mil­lion light-years away from Earth, The Perseus Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest to us but is dif­fi­cult to see in vis­ible-light wavelengths. The cluster con­tains over 500 galax­ies includ­ing NGC 1275 which sits near the centre of this image, and is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster.

The pic­ture shows the cent­ral part of the Perseus cluster. The two bright­est galax­ies at the centre of this cluster are NGC 1275 (right) and NGC 1272 (left). The Perseus cluster is also fairly close to the plane of the Milky Way, so a lot of the faintest points of light in this image are actu­ally fore­ground stars in our own galaxy.

NGC 1275 (also known as Perseus A) is a strong radio and x‑ray source res­ult­ing from the immense grav­it­a­tion­al forces occur­ing with­in this cluster.

[descrip­tion from wikipedia.org]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
SBIG STL-11000M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGB 440:120:120:100 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Perseus Galaxy Cluster (Abell 426)

Abell 426 Galaxy Cluster Sky Chart Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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Perseus (1)