Cheshire Cat (gravitational lens)

Image Title: Cheshire Cat (gravitational lens)

Copyright: Alessandro Ravagnin

Date image was taken: January 12, 2024

Location: Romano d'Ezzelino (VI) - Italy (Borlte 7 sky)

Image Description and Details: Can an amateur, from his backyard below a light polluted sky, catch photons from a distant and faint gravitational lens? I tried to take a deep image of Cheshire Cat, a gravitational lens due to a galaxy cluster (SDSS J103843.59+484917.7) located between us and four distant galaxies. The mass of this cluster and its two main super giant elliptical galaxies, distorts the space creating four distroted images of the rear galaxyies, whit arched shape. The magnitude of these arches is lower than 22/23 and the separation between the eyes of the Cat is lower than the apparent diameter of the disk of Saturn.

Equipment Details: C11HD Edge + ASI2600MM, no filters.
Sky-watcher EQ8
20 hours with 120s and 180s integration time for the various subs.
Processed with Pixinsight and edited with Gimp.
In the lower box, HST image as reference for the faintest details.