NGC 5371 Wide Field – A Sea of Galaxies
Key Field Data
Main galaxy: NGC 5371
Notable galaxy group: Hickson Compact Group 68 (HCG 68)
Constellation: Canes Venatici
NGC 5371 type: barred/intermediate spiral galaxy
NGC 5371 distance: approximately 100 million light-years
HCG 68: compact group of galaxies
Principal HCG 68 members: NGC 5350, NGC 5353, NGC 5354, NGC 5355 and NGC 5358
Other notable galaxies: NGC 5320, NGC 5363, NGC 5364, NGC 5383, NGC 5403, NGC 5406 and many others
Field of view: approximately 5.18° × 3.46°
Field characteristic: exceptionally rich extragalactic field containing hundreds of identifiable galaxies
Light-travel time: roughly 100 million years for NGC 5371 and the principal galaxies of HCG 68; considerably longer for many background systems
Description
This wide-field image reveals an extraordinary region of Canes Venatici, transforming what might initially appear to be a simple star field into a vast sea of galaxies.
At the centre of the scene lies NGC 5371, accompanied by the compact concentration of Hickson Compact Group 68. But at this much wider scale, they become part of something considerably larger: an immense extragalactic landscape populated by spiral, elliptical, lenticular and edge-on galaxies scattered across the entire frame.
The deeper one looks, the more galaxies emerge. Many are obvious extended objects, while countless others appear only as tiny elongated streaks, diffuse patches or minute points of light among the foreground stars of our own Milky Way.
The result is less a portrait of a single galaxy than a glimpse into the large-scale richness of the Universe beyond our Galaxy.
NGC 5371
Near the centre of the image, NGC 5371 is one of the most prominent galaxies in the field.
Located approximately 100 million light-years from Earth, it is a large spiral galaxy with a bright central region and an extended system of spiral arms.
In a narrower-field image, NGC 5371 naturally dominates the composition. Here, however, the much larger field provided by the RedCat 51 places it into its wider cosmic context. The galaxy becomes one member of an enormous population extending in every direction.
This change of scale dramatically alters our perception of the scene: a galaxy that is itself composed of billions of stars becomes only one small island among many.
Hickson Compact Group 68
Close to NGC 5371 lies Hickson Compact Group 68, a remarkable concentration of galaxies whose principal members are NGC 5350, NGC 5353, NGC 5354, NGC 5355 and NGC 5358.
Compact groups are particularly interesting because their galaxies occupy relatively small regions of space. Repeated gravitational encounters can alter their structures, redistribute gas and stars and, over sufficiently long periods, contribute to galactic mergers.
Even in this wide-field view, HCG 68 can be recognised as a small concentration of galaxies embedded within a much larger extragalactic population.
A Sea of Galaxies
The most remarkable feature of this image becomes apparent when the field is plate-solved and annotated.
What initially looks like an ordinary background filled with stars suddenly reveals an astonishing number of catalogued galaxies. Objects carrying NGC and PGC designations appear throughout virtually the entire frame.
Many of the smallest galaxies are so distant that their internal structures cannot be resolved at this image scale. They appear instead as tiny elliptical patches, faint streaks or barely perceptible smudges between the stars.
The apparent blackness between the brighter objects is therefore far from empty. With sufficient exposure time, sensitivity and image depth, the background becomes populated by galaxies at progressively greater distances.
Almost everywhere you look, there is another galaxy.
Foreground Stars, Background Universes
Nearly all the sharp stellar points visible throughout the image belong to our own Milky Way and are therefore enormously closer than the galaxies behind them.
This creates one of the most fascinating aspects of deep-sky photography. A relatively ordinary star within our Galaxy can appear much brighter than an entire distant galaxy containing billions of stars, simply because the star is vastly closer to Earth.
Behind this foreground curtain of Milky Way stars lies an entirely different universe of galaxies separated from us by tens, hundreds and potentially much greater numbers of millions of light-years.
The photograph therefore contains objects occupying enormously different distances within the same two-dimensional image.
A Natural Deep-Sky Survey
With a field spanning more than five degrees of sky, this image acts almost like a small astronomical survey.
Large spiral galaxies reveal recognizable structures, inclined systems appear as flattened discs, edge-on galaxies become thin streaks of light, while elliptical galaxies show smoother and more uniform profiles.
Beyond them lies an even larger population of faint background galaxies, many identified only by catalogue numbers such as those of the Principal Galaxies Catalogue (PGC).
The contrast between the normal image and its annotated version is particularly striking: what appears at first to be predominantly a field of stars is revealed to contain an extraordinary extragalactic population.
Looking Through Cosmic Time
NGC 5371 and the principal galaxies associated with HCG 68 are seen approximately as they existed 100 million years ago, because their light has required roughly that long to reach Earth.
When those photons began their journey, Earth was in the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs inhabited the planet and modern humans were still almost 100 million years in the future.
But the image does not represent a single moment in cosmic history. Some foreground stars are only tens or hundreds of light-years away, NGC 5371 lies around 100 million light-years away, and many of the tiny background galaxies may be substantially more distant.
Their photons therefore began travelling toward us at very different epochs.
This image is not simply a view across space. It is also a view through time — layer after layer of the Universe recorded together in a single frame.
Image Data
Total integration time: 26h
Integration by filter:
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LP: 26h (312 × 300")
Equipment:
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Telescope: William Optics RedCat / Cat 51 III WIFD
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Camera: ToupTek ATR2600M
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Mount: 10Micron GM2000 HPS II
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Filter: Optolong L-QEF 2"
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Accessories: ToupTek AAF Electric Focuser, WandererAstro WandererBox Pro V3, ZWO EFW 7 × 2″
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Software: Adobe Photoshop, Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
For further details and the full-resolution image, visit AstroBin: