Field near spiral galaxy NGC 4945

Eso_eso9922c_1024

eso_eso9922c March 26th, 1999

Credit: ESO

This image is an enlargement at full resolution of a smaller region (about 1/67 by area) of a sky field around the spiral galaxy NGC 4945 . It is assembled from five 15-minute R(ed)-narrowband (shown in red), four 5-minute B(lue)-band (shown in green), and five 1000-second U(ltraviolet)-band (shown in blue) exposures, obtained in January 1999 during the Science Verification phase with the Wide-Field-Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at La Silla. At the recession velocity of NGC 4945, the red filter, centred at 665 nm with an FWHM (full width at half maximum) of only 1.2 nm, does not include the H-alpha emission line of interstellar hydrogen in this galaxy. The original resolution of about 1 arcsec corresponds to roughly 62 light-years at the distance of NGC 4945 (13 million light-years). In addition to NGC 4945 itself, some much more distant galaxies can be recognized as faint, slightly red light patches in the field. The vast majority of the point-like sources are stars in the Milky Way. However, a fair number of those near NGC 4945 are globular clusters belonging to this galaxy. Each frame records 8184 x 8196 = 67,076,064 pixels, and thus the total number of data points (pixels) of the 14 CCD frames used to make this photo is almost 10 9. Their collective information content corresponds to more than 70 x 10 9 photons (not counting those from the Earth's upper atmosphere that were recorded simultaneously). It covers 1001 x 1002 pixels and measures about 4 x 4 arcmin 2 in the sky. The structure of the faint and distant spiral galaxy at the centre is well visible in this reproduction.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9922c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4945
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Eso_eso9922c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 6m 36.8s
DEC = -49° 31’ 50.5”
Orientation
North is 0.1° CCW
Field of View
4.0 x 4.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Centaurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (R) -
Green MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (B) -
Blue MPG-2.2m (WFI) Ultraviolet (U) -
Eso_eso9922c_1280
×
ID
eso9922c
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4945
Credits
ESO
Release Date
1999-03-26T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9922c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED
Facility
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
Instrument
WFI, WFI, WFI
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
R, B, U
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
900, 300, 1000
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
196.653508703, -49.5306932434
Reference Dimension
1002.0, 999.0
Reference Pixel
501.0, 499.0
Scale
-6.60480718413e-05, 6.60480718413e-05
Rotation
0.08
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso9922c
Metadata Date
2009-01-07T16:49:01+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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