Description: From just beyond the point of closest approach to the earth Comet Catalina, before getting lost in the depths of the cosmos (being a very long-period comet) gives us a picture of rare beauty: a close encounter with a pair of interacting galaxies. The proximity to the so-called system Keenan consists of NGC 5216 and NGC 5218 (Arp 104) in the northern constellation Ursa Major is obviously only prospectively being gravitationally bound distant galaxies 130 million light-years while the comet was less than 100 million km from our planet. Noteworthy is the bridge of matter that connects the two galaxies in a provisional embrace, just as spectacular as the queues are developed by the comet, a light blue ionized dusty on the other which reflects the light of our sun.
Optics: | Celestron C11 Hyperstar mode |
Mount: | Avalon M1 Fast Reverse |
Camera: | SX H694 binning 2x |
Dates/Times: | 19-20 Jan 2016 temp : -7° |
Location: | Viterbo, Italy |
Exposure: | Lum: 6 min Red : 2 min B: 4 min G: R/B |
Cooling: | avg – 35° |
Acquisition: | Astroart, Sequence Generator Pro |
Processing: | Iris-AstroArt-PS3 |
Bortle: | 7.0 |
NOTE | um: 68% |