by Ann » Fri May 06, 2011 12:32 am
Iván Edér's image of M106 and its neighbourhood is fantastic. Thanks to Owlice, who posted the really large version of the image elsewhere, but since I wouldn't even presume to count the galaxies in the image, I want to post my comment here. There is "an embrrassment of galaxies" here, except there isn't, of course, since the expression "embarrassment of riches" apparently means "too much of a good thing". Well, there aren't too many galaxies here, but there sure is a wealth of them. Amazing.
As a color freak, I'm almost floored by the effect of the juxtaposition of the two most strongly colored objects here, a blue and an orange star right next to each other some distance away from the second most obvious galaxy in the picture, NGC 4217. And amazingly, as I checked the stars with my software, the blue star really is a B-type star with a quite strongly negative color index, and the orange star really is a red star with about the same spectral class and color index as Aldebaran.
Closer to NGC 4217, and to the upper left of the striking blue and orange pair, is a neutral-colored even brighter star. This is a G-type star, admittedly a G5 star instead of a G2 star like the Sun, but the color of the G5 star is relatively similar to that of the Sun.
Overall, Iván Edér's image is relatively softly colored, but thanks to the brilliantly colored pair of stars it is nevertheless sparkling with color. His picture invites us to consider the nature of galaxies: they are, by and large, a collection of stars of different colors: white, orange and blue stars and stars of all possible hues and nuances in between. These stars are like tiny, tiny coloring-brushes. Together they paint the sky with soft color and make it sparkle.
Thanks a billion to Iván Edér for bringing this splendid image to us.
Ann
Iván Edér's image of M106 and its neighbourhood is fantastic. Thanks to Owlice, who posted the really large version of the image elsewhere, but since I wouldn't even presume to count the galaxies in the image, I want to post my comment here. There is "an embrrassment of galaxies" here, except there isn't, of course, since the expression "embarrassment of riches" apparently means "too much of a good thing". Well, there aren't too many galaxies here, but there sure is a wealth of them. Amazing.
As a color freak, I'm almost floored by the effect of the juxtaposition of the two most strongly colored objects here, a blue and an orange star right next to each other some distance away from the second most obvious galaxy in the picture, NGC 4217. And amazingly, as I checked the stars with my software, the blue star really is a B-type star with a quite strongly negative color index, and the orange star really is a red star with about the same spectral class and color index as Aldebaran.
Closer to NGC 4217, and to the upper left of the striking blue and orange pair, is a neutral-colored even brighter star. This is a G-type star, admittedly a G5 star instead of a G2 star like the Sun, but the color of the G5 star is relatively similar to that of the Sun.
Overall, Iván Edér's image is relatively softly colored, but thanks to the brilliantly colored pair of stars it is nevertheless sparkling with color. His picture invites us to consider the nature of galaxies: they are, by and large, a collection of stars of different colors: white, orange and blue stars and stars of all possible hues and nuances in between. These stars are like tiny, tiny coloring-brushes. Together they paint the sky with soft color and make it sparkle.
Thanks a billion to Iván Edér for bringing this splendid image to us.
Ann