NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, together called the Antennae Galaxies, form one of the best-known interacting pairs in the southern sky. I captured this deep LRGB image from Obstech (Observatorio El Sauce), Chile. It highlights tidal tails, star-forming knots, and dust structure across the merger.
Target Details
Roughly 45-70 million light-years away, the Antennae Galaxies show galactic evolution in real time. First, gravity pulls both disks out of shape. Then, it triggers intense star formation in compressed regions. Blue arcs mark young stars, while magenta knots trace active nebular zones. Meanwhile, dark dust lanes cut through the shared core and add depth.
Because NGC 4038 sits so close to NGC 4039, this frame also maps merger-stage morphology. For example, the scene shows elongated tails, broken spiral structure, and localized starburst pockets in one field. In practice, long integration is essential because faint halo and dust detail sit far below the bright core. Therefore, I protected gradients during processing and avoided clipping. As a result, the final image keeps a more natural three-dimensional look.
Processing Notes
To improve core detail, I used 2x drizzle integration during stacking. Normally, I skip this step at my imaging scale. However, the seeing quality supported it on this data set. Consequently, the drizzle run improved fine structure without adding artificial sharpness.
Equipment and Acquisition
- Location: Obstech (Observatorio El Sauce), Chile
- Telescope: PlaneWave CDK500 Observatory System
- Camera: Moravian C3-61000 PRO
- Filters: Chroma L, R, G, B
- Integration: L=60x600s, R=64x300s, G=64x300s, B=64x300s (26 hours total)
- Processing: PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop
Additional Information
- Antennae Galaxies overview on Wikipedia
- SIMBAD database entry for NGC 4038
- See more deep-sky work in the Gallery and the Galaxies category