James Perse
Good morning. It’s November 14th, and today’s photo is absolutely gorgeous. It features an astronomical feature known as Arp 273, so named because it was part of an atlas of strange galaxies compiled by American astronomer Halton Arp six decades ago.
In this case, Arp 273 is not just one galaxy, but two galaxies located about 300 million light-years from Earth. The two spiral galaxies are interacting with each other, and astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope Believes Characteristic signs of intense star formation in the core of the smaller galaxy are likely caused by a collision with the larger galaxy.
However, our photo today was not taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, but by James Pierce, an amateur astrophotographer and Ars reader. (One of the joys of starting this little feature is realizing how many of our readers are fantastically talented sky photographers.)
Pierce took this image with an 8-inch Celestron EdgeHD telescope from the backyard of his home in Utah.
He said of this image: “These galaxies are stupid, very distant and somewhat ‘small’ from our point of view, which makes them a very difficult target to photograph in the pursuit of amateur folly, but I have wanted to photograph them for some time.” “I got my chance on October 8, 2023, thanks to a wonderful clear night in the desert with a remarkably stable atmosphere, no wind and no moon until late at night, and these gems passing overhead. I will take it as the universe throwing me a bone before what may be a long winter.” And another cold and windy one.”
source: James Perse.
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