Galaxy cluster, in Fornax

Fornax Cluster

This photography was taken during 3 sessions using a Canon 600D modified camera and a 200mm F4 reflector telescope from San Antonio de Areco (2016/2017) and Pueblo Doyle (2017), both sites in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is composed by 53 individual frames, with a total integration time of 4 hours 25 minutes.

This galaxy cluster is in the austral constellation Fornax (the furnace), with an average distance of 62 million light-years from Earth.
The Fornax cluster is composed by approximately 60 galaxies, separated in two main groups. In this image appears part of the subgroup centered around NGC1399, while the other (centered in the brighter member of the cluster, NGC1316) lays out of the field of view.

The most notorious objects in the picture are (up and right) the NGC1399 galaxy (a giant elliptical with 500 million solar masses) and the barred spiral NGC1365 (bottom left).
Other members easy to see are NGC1374, NGC1375, NGC1379, NGC1380, NGC1381, NGC1382, NGC1386, NGC1387, NGC1389 and NGC1404.

In the following annotated image, it is possible to see around 230 distant galaxies on the background sky, in addition to the dozen of most prominent objects.

Fornax Cluster Annotated

Technical Data

Acquisition sites San Antonio de Areco and Pueblo Doyle, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Acquisition dates 11-27-2016 (San Antonio de Areco) x 17
9-23-2017 (Pueblo Doyle) x 9
10-21-2017 (San Antonio de Areco) x 27
Instrument Newton GSO F4 200 with GPU coma corrector.
Mount Sky-Watcher NEQ6, managed by EQmod
Guide Off-Axis, with Lodestar camera
Camera Modified Canon 600D/T3i
No IR Filter (Full Spectrum mod, using Astronomik MC Clear)
Refrigerated (regulated temperature)
Camera sensor temperature 0°C (on-sensor measured and regulated)
Filter Astronomik Clip CLS CCD
Integration 53 x 5 minutes subframes - ISO 800
Total integration time: 4 hs 25 minutes
Calibration 49 flats, 400 bias, 84 darks.
Resolution 1.1 arcsec/pixel
787 mm actual focal, 4.2 um x 4.2 um pixels
Native size 5202 x 3465 pixels
Cropped size 4991 x 3140 pixels
FOV 1°31’ x 57’
Image center coordinates RA: 03h 36min 15sec
Dec: -35° 43' 20"
Rotation: 120.9°
Process PixInsight 1.8