Galaxy Clusters Abell 2197 & 2199 – part of the Hercules supercluster

About the Object

This image is on the first couple of sights pretty unspectacular, just a decent number of foreground stars. But if one browses throught the background, a fair number of pretty faint (at at best barely resolved) galaxies become visible. They are all at a distance of some 400 Million light years and form the pair of galaxy clusters Abell 2197 and Abell 2199, each of them hosting some 80 galaxies. and this pair is part of a much larger (but dynamically not relaxed) structure - the Hercules Supercluster (SCl 160). The Hercules supercluster and its neighbor - the Coma supercluster are part of the so-called Great Wall. First identified in the 1980s by Margaret Geller, John Huchra and co. The great wall is the prototype of the filamentary structure of the galaxy distribution on the largest scales - the so-called cosmic web.

Observation Notes

The picture here was done with my small travel rig, a 72mm refractor on a small goto mount. A pretty deep and detailed view for such a small scope, I think

Data were taken on 2023 June 9, 10, 13, 17, 18, and 24

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.