New Additions to the ING Collection of Messier Objects

M83 Galaxy. Color images of this galaxy reveal a wide range of colors from the yellow central core of old stars to the blue spiral arms of young stars. Several red knots can also be seen These are gaseous nebulae where active star formation is taking place. Dark lanes of dust are also visible throughout the galaxy’s disk. The image shown on the next page was obtained in February 2004 using the Prime Focus Camera on the William Herschel Telescope, and it is a combination of filters Johnson B, V and R. Credit: Chris Benn (ING) and Nik Szymanek (University of Hertfordshire).

M83 Galaxy. [ JPEG | TIFF ]

M74 Galaxy. Its arms are traced with clusters of blue young stars and pinkish colored diffuse gaseous nebulae (HII regions), and reach out to cover a region of roughly 95,000 light years, or about the same size as our Milky Way galaxy. The image was obtained in August 2004 using the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope. The colour composite was built from filters B, V and R and using Adobe Photoshop with the help of the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator plugin. Credit: Simon Dye (Cardiff University).

M74 Galaxy. [ JPEG | TIFF ]

M81 Galaxy. The image is a combination of exposures obtained in 2003 from Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope (courtesy of Jonathan Irwin) and Digitized Sky Survey 2 images. Credit: ESA/INT/DSS2.

M81 Galaxy. [ JPEG | TIFF ]