Remote Celestial Objects
6C 113337+702604 (Quasar)
Quasar 6C 113337+702604 (Mrk 180) photographed by Pete Lawrence, with distant galaxies UGC 06580 and LEDA 2734550.
Target details
A quasar is the blazing core of a distant galaxy. At its centre sits a supermassive black hole, millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun, surrounded by a disc of gas. As that gas falls inwards it heats up and pours out radiation right across the spectrum, so the most powerful quasars outshine a whole galaxy like the Milky Way thousands of times over.
In this image I have captured Quasar 6C 113337+702604, also known as MRK 180. The image also features two distant galaxies, UGC 06580 & LEDA 2734550. I have not been able to find out any detailed information on these galaxies, the main thing I would like to know is their distance from Earth.
Capture details
Data captured 1st, 11th, 17th & 18th November, 2018.
42x 3 minute exposures with Lum filter.
Total Exposure 2.1 hours.
I did capture RGB data but it suffered very badly from light pollution so I chose to exclude it from the final image.
Equipment details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 428EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II
Processing details
This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Calibration and Registration using Batch PreProcessing script.
Dynamic Crop - Cropped to remove any black edges.
Automatic Background Extraction - Applied to remove background gradients.
Multiscale Linear Transform - Noise reduction.
Histrogram Transformation - To stretch the image and bring out the data.
Curves Transformation - To increase contrast.
Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.
Decrease shadows (-100)
Export final JPEG for upload.
Quick facts
- When was this photo taken?
- 18 November 2018
- How long was the total exposure?
- 2.1 hours
- What equipment was used?
- Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF, NEQ6 Pro, Atik 428EX Mono, Skywatcher ST-80, QHY5L-II
- Where was it taken from?
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland.