This annotated image of the covers approx 1.2 x 1.8 degrees. I have flagged the brightest stars and galaxies in the image. North is up.
The Coma Galaxy Cluster is approx 330 million lightyears distant and I managed to capture around 215 galaxies, down to mag 19.38 (PGC4349872). The light that fell on my sensor was emitted in Earth's Carboniferous period, when the oxygen content of the atmosphere was much higher than today. The largest land vertebrates were 10-foot long amphibians - and dragonflies with wingspans of over two feet flew the sky.
Towards the top left is the quasar HB89 1258+286 NED01, at magnitude 17.29. With a redshift of just under 2, this as 30 times further away than the galaxy cluster - so is the most distant object I have (knowingly) imaged, at 9.92 billion lightyears.
It is amazing to think that the photons from the quasar, that landed on my camera sensor were ANCIENT. When they set out on their long journey, the formation of our solar system still lay 5 billion years in the future. When they were converted to electrons upon hitting the photodiodes, they were over 70% of the age of the universe.......
ZWO ASI071 Pro camera through an Altair Astro 102ED telescope
Date: 19/04/2018
