This galaxy cluster is far too large for my 0.2 square degree field of view. It has a diameter of 134 minutes for an area of just under 4 degrees or nearly 20 times my field of view. I did image its center region however. The average distance of the cluster is about 270 million light-years. Major members of the cluster in my limited image include:
NGC 5409 an interesting galaxy classed as (R')SAB(s)b
NGC 5416 a chaotic Sc or Scd spiral
NGC 5423 an S0 galaxy
NGC 5424 an S0 galaxy that appears to have a couple shells
NGC 5431 an apparent one arm spiral classed as S? More likely it is a two armed spiral, possibly barred, whose arms overlap in a way to appear as one arm.
NGC 5434 A classic Sc spiral
NGC 5434B/UGC 08967 an Sbc near edge on spiral
NGC 5436 a spiral classed as S0/a even though it has a strong dust lane
There is a faint stream of light heading east from NGC 5431 the S? galaxy. It is seen in the Sloan images as well so is real. I don't know if it is a plume from the galaxy or a faint nebulous patch of IFN or something similar. Might be worthwhile spending many hours on it to see if it can be determined which it is. For now I'm going with it being a plume.
The only quasar in the image is [HB89] 1400+095. It is listed twice at NED with two slightly different positions, one with a larger than normal error circle. That less well defined entry lists it as an AbLS object (Absorption Line System) with a redshift that puts it only 7.2 billion light-years (z=0.868000) instead of 11.5 light-years (z=2.983090) of the quasar labeled entry. It might be that the closer distance is the redshift of the absorption lines while the further is that of the quasar itself. In other words a gas cloud sits between us and the quasar causing the absorption lines in the more distant quasar. At least that is how I am interpreting this double entry. If anyone has a better idea let me know.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
Rick
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