Mystery Galaxy

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Well, this night 2 weeks ago unfolded with my having decided I wanted to photography a comet! :) It seems there are several of these scattered (comets) through the night sky on any given night.

When trying to find my goal, Comet C/2017 T2 I manually aligned to where I thought it was and found what looked like a glowing ball. I didn't see the tail of the comet, but with this being my first comet, I was totally and figuratively out in the dark with knowing how it might look to me in a real life.

For reference:
Taken 2020/05/26 Just a bit of a ways above Bodes Galaxy


So here it is, perhaps someone even knows what it is, or the name of It......

Comet_C2017_T2_d1w.jpg
 
Last edited:

Colorado CJ

Well-Known Member
That is NGC 3359, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 Million light years away.

You can go to http://nova.astrometry.net/upload and upload any astro photo. The site uses "plate solving" to show the exact location of the image and labels any object in that image. My imaging software that runs my telescope does the same thing, so that it points to an exact location. It is awesome what kind of technology is out there for free!
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
Nice random find - even if it wasn't the intended target. The tools for figuring out what you got sound interesting.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
That is NGC 3359, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 Million light years away.

You can go to http://nova.astrometry.net/upload and upload any astro photo. The site uses "plate solving" to show the exact location of the image and labels any object in that image. My imaging software that runs my telescope does the same thing, so that it points to an exact location. It is awesome what kind of technology is out there for free!
You are a life saver Andy!!!

I was hoping Astrobin could Plate solve it, but it didn’t.
 

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Jim,

That's very cool, and you got some great detail considering this things apparent size! That big MP Nikon has an advantage there for sure! Fun capture!

ML
 
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