Thursday, Aug 15, 2024

After over a year of planning and overcoming weather challenges, I’m excited to share my personal version of the spectacular Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/39), also known as Arp 244. Using the RC1000 telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, we spent 12 nights collecting data to bring you this extraordinary view of these interacting galaxies, located 45 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus. The Antennae Galaxies are a prime example of galactic interaction, with their iconic tidal tails formed by gravitational forces. Thanks to the hard work and collaboration of the ShaRA team, we’ve managed to capture their beauty and complexity. Shot Details: Telescope: RC1000 in Rio Hurtado, Chile (Chilescope service) Integration Time: 17.7 hours Exposures: 46x600s bin1 Luminance 18x600s bin1 Blue 17x600s bin1 Green 24x600s bin1 Red (+ another 10 of poor quality) 8x600s bin1 H-alpha ShaRA Team: Anfuso Adriano Bertocco Andrea Chander Vikas Curzi Simone Di Fusco Massimo Di Stefano Fabio Erkaslan Aygen Firenzuoli Marco Iorio Andrea Kaptàs Attila Linsalata Fernando Ligustri Rolando Lioce Donato Loro Antonio Lupi Alberto Maffioli Riccardo Michieletto Gianpaolo Pazienza Gianluigi Ravagnin Alessandro Trabuio Cristiano Vergani Egidio