by Michael Sidonio
Centaurus A is a huge elliptical galaxy that has devoured another entire galaxy about 1 billion years ago and now has a massive black hole at its centre. This data set was taken in May 2008 from a very dark sky in remote <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Together the three images (each processed from the same data set) reveal the full extent of this galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus. The faint extremities revealed in this deep image push the size of Centaurus A out to a wopping 300 000 Ltyrs in diameter. The extreme exposure also reveals that the entire field is blanketed with ultra faint intervening galactic cirrus dust in our Milky Way.
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Image capture details:<o:p></o:p>
6” F7.5 <st1:place w:st="on">APO</st1:place> Starfire refractor
NJP mount with FS2 goto
FLI ProLine11002 CCD & CFW-2-7
LRGB = 15hrs 1.5hrs 1.5hrs 1.5hrs using Astronomik filters
Guide Camera: Starlightxpress SXVH9
Astroart4 for camera control and processing
AstroHandy LightRing used for flats<o:p></o:p>