Astro-Images Combine Work of Professional and Amateur Astronomers

With April being Global Astronomy Month, it is fitting that the blending of images taken by amateur and professional astronomers is highlighted, and yield spectacular results.

Many of us have seen the incredible images of the universe taken by professional astronomers using instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and large observatories. But there are thousands of dedicated, spare-time, amateur astronomers and astrophotographers, who have also captured awe-inspiring images with much smaller telescopes.

This week, NASA highlighted collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers to show what is possible, and to help raise interest and awareness among the community by showcasing of the wealth of data publicly available in NASA’s various mission archives.

Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Detlef Hartmann; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In the image above, “a quartet of galaxies represent a sample of composites created with X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and optical data collected by an amateur astronomer. In these images, the X-rays from Chandra are shown in pink, infrared emission from Spitzer is red, and the optical data are in red, green, and blue.”

While instruments like the HST and large ground based telescopes produce stunning images, they are often produced in relatively short exposures due to tight schedules of availability. Amateurs have the luxury of being able to take much longer exposures, and can often reveal phenomena that may otherwise be missed.

Amateurs Detlef Hartmann and Rolf Olsen used their personal telescopes of 17.5 inches and 10 inches in diameter respectively to help produce the stunning images seen above.

The images, moving clockwise from the upper left are M101 (the “Pinwheel Galaxy”), M81, Centaurus A, and M51 (the “Whirlpool Galaxy”).

“M101 is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way, but about 70% bigger. It is located about 21 million light years from Earth. M81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light years away that is both relatively large in the sky and bright, making it a frequent target for both amateur and professional astronomers. Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky — making it an ideal target for amateur astronomers — and is famous for the dust lane across its middle and a giant jet blasting away from the supermassive black hole at its center. Finally, M51 is another spiral galaxy, about 30 million light years away, that is in the process of merging with a smaller galaxy seen to its upper left.”