NGC4535 Spiral Galaxy In Virgo
NGC4535 “The Lost Galaxy”…
NGC 4535 is a barred spiral galaxy located some 55 million light years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
It is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and is located 4.3° from Messier 87.
The galactic plane of NGC 4535 is inclined by an angle of 43° to the line of sight from the Earth.
In the 1950s, when amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland first fixed his telescope on a distant galaxy in the Virgo constellation,
he saw an eerie looking spiral shrouded in dust. Copeland was also a professional poet and loved writing about the cosmos, he dubbed the spiral “The Lost Galaxy,” a nickname that is still used some 70 years later.
Visually it spans 11.4 x 11 arc minutes, shining at magnitude 11, only the brighter center spiral structure is easily visible,
the outer arms are much fainter and requires longer exposure or larger diameter scopes to reveal them. There are many fainter background galaxies in the FOV as well.
I call it the Lost Galaxy, as I lost it to high clouds halfway through my imaging session…not really enough data, I only ended up with 80 minutes of exposure integration, and the clouds kept lingering, so I called it a night. I will attempt it again during the next galaxy season.
Captured on 05-01-2021 with my
Explore Scientific 102mm Triplet APO (FCD100) Refractor telescope, Bisque ME Robotic Mount, QHY 183C Cooled(OSC) Cmos Camera, 80min exposure, (16 x 300sec subs), SkyX Camera capture software with X2 plugin, PHD2, DSS, Pixinsight, & Adobe CS 2021.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
