ABELL 851

In the June Sky & Telescope Going Deep article By Dave Tosteson he mentioned his observation of Abell 851 galaxy cluster. He also started that Abell 851 is the most distant Abell galaxy cluster with a light travel time 4.37 billion light years. I have viewed many of the Abell cluster over the years but I have never tried the distant Abell 851 before. This week I decided to give it a go.

SDSS
Attachment 5438

I tried this cluster earlier this week and had not much success. I tried several powers up to 813X and had a few pops but nothing definite. I decided to try it again on a better night. Last night turned out to have poor transparency but excellent seeing so I decided to give Abell 851 another try. I was able to use 1040X with sharp stars and jet black contrast. I covered my head with my observing hood and to my surprise galaxies were popping in and out with the seeing. I had a SDSS finder chart and was able to ID five of the brighter members as they would come and go with the seeing. With a Z= 0.406 from NED and a light travel time 4.372 billion light years I was well pleased with the observation.