Abell 779 galaxy cluster is not a well-known target, because galaxy clusters are not a well-known targets for astronomy amateurs anyway. Additionally, this specific cluster lies on the southeast edge of the not-very-famous constellation of Lynx, about 40 arc minutes south from alpha Lyn (bright star at the image top). Galaxies in Abell 779 span across about 50 arc minutes in the sky, and 12 of them are listed in the New General Catalog (NGC). The largest and brightest galaxy in the cluster, NGC2832 is bright enough to be seen in a typical amateur telescope. NGC2832 builds a galaxy group with NGC2830 and NGC2831 (Arp 315 which is also Holmberg 123).
This galaxy group and also the whole cluster is about 300 million light years from us. The total number of identified galaxies in Abell 779 is estimated to be at a minimum of 50. The enormous quantity of intergalactic gas is also present in the Abell 779, and that gas can have a mass twice the total mass of the galaxies.
The image above contains about 10 hours of total exposure time. The data was collected under a suburban sky with 19.50 mag/arcsec2 average background brightness, so the final effect is not breathtaking. However, the conditions were relatively good with some a bit of high clouds present, and the QHY268 camera is quite a sensitive tool, so not many galaxies have escaped from being captured 🙂
The image below is an enlarged fragment of the cluster’s central part. It is desaturated and inverted, so fainter features can be noticed there.
Image technical data: Date: December 2024 Location: Nieborowice, Poland Telescope: TS Photoline 130/910 Corrector: TS FF/FR 0.8x Camera: QHY268M Mount: EQ6 Guiding: ASI290MM + Evoguide ED50 Exposures: LRGB 450:80:50:70 minutes Conditions: Bortle 6, transparency and seeing good
