The VLT looks deep into a spiral galaxy

The photo is a combination of two 30 min exposures, obtained in succession with the VLT UT1. For both, the image quality is excellent (round images at 0.38 and 0.40 arcsec, respectively), despite the long exposure time. This once more demonstrates the ability of the telescope to track with very high precision over long time intervals, already at this early stage of commissioning.

This is a combination of two 30-min exposures through a 400 Å-wide optical filtre centered at 5100 Å (green; image quality 0.38 arcsec) and a 400 Å-wide optical filtre centered at 5300 Å (green; image quality 0.40 arcsec) with the VLT Test Camera. Individual frames were flat-fielded and cleaned for cosmics and then combined. The resulting FWHM is 0.39 arcsec. No further image processing was done. The field measures 1.5 x 1.5 arcmin. North is to the upper right; East is to the upper left.

Credit:

ESO

Over de afbeelding

Id:eso9826a
Type:Observatie
Publicatiedatum:23 juni 1998
Gerelateerde berichten:eso9826
Grootte:2267 x 2500 px

Over het object

Naam:M 83, Messier 83, NGC 5236, Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Afstand:15 miljoen lichtjaren
Categorie:Galaxies

Afbeeldingstypen

Grote JPEG
1,1 MB

Achtergrond

1024x768
248,5 KB
1280x1024
392,7 KB
1600x1200
524,7 KB
1920x1200
568,3 KB
2048x1536
753,2 KB

Kleuren & filters

BandGolflengteTelescoop
Optisch
V
510 nmVery Large Telescope

Exposure time: 3600s