Location / Date

Zellerndorf, February/March 2019

Telescope / Mount / Guiding

ASA 10" Astrograph, ASA 3" Wynne-Corrector
ASA DDM60, no Guiding

Camera / Exposure

Moravian G3-16200, Astrodon filters
L 76 x 10min, R (bin2x2) 24 x 5min, G (bin2x2) 24 x 5min, B (bin2x2) 24 x 5min

Total exposure time: 18h 40min

Processing

PixInsight, Fitswork, Photoshop

Notes

The Leo Galaxy Cluster (Abell 1367) is a galaxy cluster about 330 million light-years distant in the constellation Leo. Together with the Coma Galaxy Cluster he forms the two most important members of the Coma super cluster. Abell 1367 is located at the intersection of two large filaments, connecting the cluster to the Virgo Galaxy Cluster in the southeast and to the Coma Calaxy Cluster in the northeast.

NGC 3842 is the brightest member of this cluster. It is also home to one of the universe's largest known black holes, which lies in the center of NGC 3842. The black hole is 9.7 billion times more massive than our sun.

In total, the Leo galaxy cluster comprises over 500 galaxies. Reliably identifiable galaxies in my image are marked with a circle.

Most dense galaxy clusters are composed mostly of elliptical galaxies. The Leo Cluster, however, mostly contains spiral galaxies, suggesting that it is much younger than other comparable clusters, such as the Coma Cluster.

Thanks to Sakib Rasool for suggesting this object.