Equipment
Optics
Planewave CDK1000
Planewave CDK700
Camera
Moravian Instruments C5A-100M
Mounts
Planewave 1000 Series Gimbal
Planewave 700 Series Gimbal
Filters
Chroma Blue 2″
Chroma Green 2″
Chroma Lum 50 mm
Chroma Red 2″
Software
Adobe Photoshop
Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
Objects
NGC 7727
Description
Thank you to Mike Selby at throughlightandtime.com for this wonderful data set!!
I am so fascinated with this amazing galaxy! NGC 7727 is located approximately 75 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius.
NGC 7727 (also known as ARP 222 which classes as a peculiar galaxy), it is the result of a collision and merger of two spiral galaxies around 1 billion years ago. The event created the spectacular tidal tails and dust trails that we see in this image.
There are two bright point objects seen in the center, which are galactic nuclei one of which is likely the core of one of the merged galaxies. It harbors two galactic nuclei, each containing a supermassive black hole, separated 1,600 light years apart, which are moving closer to each other and will eventually merge.
NGC 7727 has very little in the way of new star formation and it is thought that it will transform into an Elliptical Galaxy in the distant future.
I added a wider field and the default view, and both full resolution to zoom into the tiny background galaxies I found really amazing!