TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The National Observatory Management Agency (BPON) in Kupang recently released two photos of the same object, Galaxy M83, but different in appearance, namely black and white and color.
Abdul Rahman, coordinator BPON Kupang, explained the equipment and how to make it. According to him, BPON in Kupang has several telescopes that are used for research and astrophotography. For both purposes, these telescopes must at least have good pointing and tracking capabilities.
“Thus, observations of certain dim targets can be carried out for a long time to obtain the desired information,” said Abdul as quoted from the BRIN website, February 11, 2022.
Black and white image taken at BPON using telescope Takashi refractor is 106 mm in diameter with a focal length of 530 mm. The telescope mount uses the German equatorial type.
To record the image, a CCD camera with a resolution of 3326 x 2504 pixels was used. The technique used to obtain the image is quite simple. After the telescope is pointed precisely at the target, namely M83, the mount is adjusted so that the telescope continues to follow the target so that M83 and other stars remain in the same position in the image recorded for 10 minutes,
While the color image is taken from http://www.patrikphoto.com/m83_en/. To obtain it, in addition to better pointing and tracking capabilities, it also requires more complete equipment and a longer and more complicated process.
The image was obtained using a telescope that is larger in size and focal length than that used in BPON. In addition, the tool is also equipped with an astronomical filter to be able to produce a variety of colors.
The total shooting time using 4 filters took 6 hours 16 minutes. After data acquisition, the process is continued with data processing using several image processing software which of course requires its own knowledge and a lot of patience.
“The investment spent is proportional to the results we can see in the comparison image. However, this simple black and white image can also provide astronomical information. We can clearly see that M83 is a spiral galaxy that has a bar in the middle,” he said.
M83 or Messies 83 in full is also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy and NGC 5236. Its distance from Earth is estimated to be about 15 million light years. Seen from Earth, M83 is in the constellation Hydra.
M83 is much smaller than the Milky Way Galaxy but it produces stars at a much faster rate. The pink dots in the color image are locations where new stars are born.
“The telescope at BPON can also produce color images. This time, a black and white image was deliberately taken to show that even with simpler tools and techniques, certain astronomical information could actually be obtained,” he said.
Read:
A Universe Rose from Two Interacting Galaxies
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