NGC 660

Data acquired remotely at Tao by Immo Gerber and Dietmar Hager.

This image is dedicated to our late friend Danny Marquardt.

Also available at NASA website.

Date: Sept+Oct. 2009 - seeing 4(RGB)-7(L)/10; transp. 8-9/10 - apprx. 50 hours of total exp.time

Scope: 9" TMB Apo Triplette f/9 + TMB Flattener

CCD: Sbig 11k + Astronomik Filters IIc:

L = 43+2200s 1x1; R,G,B = 40x2200 sec 2x2

(dark and flat calibrated)

Software: Maxim DL, CCD Stack, CCD Sharp, Registax, PS CS4, Pix IS LE

medium

full

enlarged crop

Obj.identification: Minor Planets, Galaxies, Quasars

potpourries of 100 peculiar background-galaxies

Discovered 1784 by William Herschel, this sepctacular galaxy is located in the constellation "pisces". Holding 7.6 arc minutes by 2.8 arc minutes she is not exactly large, but rather bright as its apparent magnitude measures some 10m7, being about 24 Mio LY away from earth. As a result of these numbers we find ngc 660 to hold about 36.000 LY in diameter.

NGC 600 is counted among the so called "polar-ring-galaxies", which is something peculiar among all galaxies known at present: Basically two galaxies were about to merge entirely, but by gravitational means of "dark matter" they have gotten "arrested" while undergoing the process of melting together. In an advanced stadium of such unification both galaxies are believed to no longer proceed further more into eachother. NGC 660 is also a strong candidate for a search for compact radio sources.