It is belatedly time for me to at least start my comment post. As usual, there are a lot of great images here!
I'm going to start with Adam Block this time, because he has two images here, and he is one of my great images because of his fantastic dedication to imaging the sky. If you want to see a nice RGB image of a celestial object, chances are that Adam has photographed it and posted his images for us to see.
Adam's image of handsome galaxy NGC 7184 is up to his usual standard. The galaxy appears to be barred and present its bar to us end on. Note the two dust lanes that appear to connect the obvious ring structure with the bright nuclear region. Such dust lanes are typical of bars. Note, too, the slightly pinkish hue of the ring, which suggests that relatively widespread star formation is going on here.
While the portrait of NGC 7184 is handsome and interesting, Adam's image of interacting galaxies NGC 2798/2799 is stunning. Galaxy NGC 2799 appears to be plunging headlong into the nuclear region of larger galaxy NGC 2798. During its fall, NGC 2799 has set off a fantastic starburst activity. What is not brilliantly blue in this galaxy is brilliantly pink from huge emission nebulae. Possibly we can see where the center is in this galaxy, since there appears to be a sort of brightening and thickening of the galaxy on both sides of the brightest pink knots in it. In this thickening, we are indeed probably seeing a non-blue and a non-pink population. It is probably the bulge of this galaxy, dominated by an intermediate population.
As it plunges towards NGC 2798, NGC 2799 has probably already managed to dump a lot of gas straight into the central parts of the larger galaxy. NGC 2798 has reacted by setting off a tremendous starburst in its central area. Note the incredible large pink knots to the upper left of the nucleus. Note how brownish filaments of dust are either plunging straight into the nucleus of NGC 2798 or else being flung up from the nuclear area. Perhaps both things are going on at once.
Note, too, that the "body" of NGC 2798 is intermediate in color. Little or no star formation has been going on in the disk in NGC 2798 for a long time. This galaxy was probably on its way to settling down, when it encountered the interloper NGC 2799. What an incredible encounter!
Finally, note the blue galaxy UGC 4904 to the left of the interacting pair. This magnitude 15.2 galaxy sported magnitude 13.8 supernova 2006jc a few years ago.
Let's continue with the galactic theme! Wolfgang Promper has submitted a very fine image of the fascinating galactic pair, NGC 3718 and NGC 3729. NGC 3718 is the large, blue, diaphanous galaxy. Everything in it is delicate and transparent except for the dust lane. Two arms appear to extend from the dust lane and point "straight and unbendingly" to the lower left and upper right. Note the fantastic group of distant interacting galaxies to the right of NGC 3718.
Davide Bardini has submitted two very fine "galaxy field" images. I particularly like the first one. I like the brightness (and the fine blue color!) of the star Phecda, gamma Ursa Majoris, an A0 type of star a little more than 80 light years away. How nicely it contrasts with fine spiral galaxies M109, about 70
million light years away, and NGC 3953, about 64 million light-years away.
Jesús Vargas and Maritxu Poyal have submitted a fine image of M81 and M82, with some fantastically red Ha emission from M82 and a lot of intergalactic gas and dust. Terry Hancock has made a similar portrait, which brings out the large golden bulge and silvery arms of M82.
cybermystic99 has made a portrait of the field around bright star Caph in Cassiopeia. The picture doesn't look like all that much, until you enlarge it and find elusive, dust-reddened, starbursting nearby dwarf galaxy IC 10 as a reddish smudge at center left. Fantastic!
Finally, chapdelaine has processed data collected by ESA/Hubble and produced a very fine picture of galaxy NGC 3081 in Hydra. Note the bright yellow nucleus and inner yellow lens, which appear to contain a bar. Note the bright ring around this yellow nucleus and lens. Note the fantastic, faint, delicate, transparent yellow oval outside it, and the brighter blue "oval ring" outside the faint yellow oval. What a fantastic galaxy!
And now I'm afraid I have no more time, so I'll have to come back later.
Ann
