Arp 104 ("Keenan's System) and NGC 5205

Processing: Data Collection - N.I.N.A. (as FITs). Sub-frame calibration - Pixinsight (WBPP). Sub-frame registration and integration (Average combine - Linear fit clipping, 2X drizzle for Lum) - PixInsight (WBPP). Noise reduction - NoiseXTerminator (RGB, Lum) - PixInsight. Non-linear stretching for Lum - PixInsight. RGB combine and stretching, Photometric RGB calibration (SPCC) - PixInsight. De-convolution - BlurXTerminator (AI4) - PixInsight. Generation of starless Lum and RGB image for later processing - StarXTerminator (PixInsight). Lum starless combined to RGB starless; Lum stars combined to RGB stars - Pixinsight. LRGB stars screened onto LRGB starless - Pixinsight. Final finishing - Affinity Photo. Annotation - PixInsight, Aladin (Simbad), and Affinity Photo. This image is an LRGB image. Image processed at 8288x5644 resolution (2x drizzle stacks). Full Field image size is approximately 5389x3655.

Description: North toward the right in this image (~75 deg). Arp 104 (Keenan's System) is toward the upper right. Its main components are NGC 5216 and NGC 5218; they are connected by a faint tidal tail. Their distance is about 135 to 185 million light years. NGC 5216 is a Seyfert 2 elliptical galaxy; NGC5218 is an AGN spiral galaxy; both have supermassive black holes at their nucleus and are distorted as a result of their interaction.

NGC 5205, in the lower left, is a spiral galaxy (also an AGN); its distance is from 86 to 107 million light years. The little galaxy appearing optically above it (PGC 2638029) is not related; it is about 10 times more distant than that of NGC 5205 - at about 931 million light years.

Between NGC 5205 and NGC 5216 - but more toward NGC 5216 - is a distant galaxy cluster, MCXC J1331.5+6238. The MCXC designation is that of "X-ray detected Clusters of Galaxies". This cluster is very distant with a redshift of 0.219. Its light takes about 2,627 million years to reach Earth ("Lookback" in time). We see the "red shifted" visible light of cluster members (approx 27 high probability members). The brightest member of this cluster is LEDA 2640520. The scale at this cosmological distance is 204.90 kpc/arcmin - this cluster spans about 6.9 arcmin, or about 4.61 million light years.

This image field is also rich in distant background galaxies and Quasars. Distant background galaxies listed in the annotation range from 0.9 to 2.69 billion years Lookback; ASK 159351.0 is the furthest at about 2.94 billion years. Quasars listed in the annotation range from about 6.5 to 11.65 billion years Lookback - many are greater than 10 billion years Lookback. The furthest Quasar is
SDSS J133219.65+622715.9 at 11.65 billion years lookback.

These objects, information, and some of the brighter stars are identified in the Annotation image. The Horizontal Full FOV is approximately 0.665 degrees. Full size, full field image scale is approximately 0.445 arcsec/pix.

All images and content remain the property of Jim Thommes - copyright 2003 - 2026