The Coma Cluster - Abell 1656
At first glance, this might look like a simple star field. But as you keep zooming in… you realize, that most of these “stars” aren’t stars at all, they’re galaxies. There are well over a thousand galaxies in this single frame, each one a vast island of billions of suns.
This is the Coma Cluster, 320 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. At its heart are the giant ellipticals NGC 4874 and NGC 4889, each holding trillions of stars. Around them, countless smaller galaxies drift, bound together by the cluster’s immense gravity.
While working on this image, I noticed something that I wasn't been hoping to catch, the extended intra-cluster light (ICL) flowing well beyond the cluster’s core, reaching all the way down toward NGC 4943 at the southern edge of the frame. This faint, ghostly glow is only a few percent brighter than the background sky, making it notoriously difficult to record. It’s the combined light of stars long ago stripped from their home galaxies during cosmic collisions. Over hundreds of millions of years, they’ve formed a river of light connecting members of the cluster.
Every smudge you see here is a galaxy. Every galaxy is a city of billions. And beyond the Coma Cluster, even more distant galaxy groups shine faintly through, pushing this view far past the cluster’s edge.
Zoom in… and see how small we truly are.
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Technical Info:
Optics : Takahashi FSQ106-EDX4 @ F5 @ 530 mm
Camera : Moravian G3-61000 Pro
Filters : Chroma Unmounted - LRGB Filter Set - 50 mm
Mount : NYX 101 - Harmonic Gear Mount
Guiding: Moravian C3-OAG + SX Lodestar X2
Acquisition : Voyager 2.3.11
Exposure : L (1x1) - 23 x 300 1 Hour 55 Minutes
R (1x1) - 16 x 300 1 Hour 22 Minutes
G (1x1) - 12 x 300 1 Hour
B (1x1) - 12 x 300 1 Hour
Gain - 0
Total Exposure: 5 Hours 15 Minutes
Processing : PixInsight 1.9.3 Lockhart (1646)
Date: 17.02.2023