I first saw a picture of this pair of galaxies in my trusted
The Color Atlas of Galaxies by James D Wray. The atlas is from the 1980s and the quality of the pictures is poor indeed, compared with what modern photography can do. But what you get in Wray's atlas is an honest depiction of the luminance of various parts of the galaxies. Bright parts look bright and faint parts look faint or are invisible.
So what struck me when I looked at Wray's picture of NGC 1532 was a row of intensely bright regions of star formation. You can make them out in today's APOD on the right side of the inner arm, starting with a pair of bright white "eyes" (or maybe those bulging white mounds are more reminiscent of some other part of the human anatomy).
Anyway, I can say this: The star formation that goes on in that part of the inner arm of NGC 1532 is
bright. And intense.
But apart from calling attention to the brightness distribution across NGC 1531 and 1532 (and bringing out the difference between ultraviolet-rich O-type stars and blue A-type stars), Wray's image of this interacting pair is obviously inferior in every way to today's APOD by Star Shadows Remote Observatory, PROMPT, CTIO. (What a coincidence: Wray took many of his pictures with the CTIO telescope.)
Really, though: Today's APOD is beautifully colored and superbly detailed. I love it!
Ann
I first saw a picture of this pair of galaxies in my trusted [i]The Color Atlas of Galaxies[/i] by James D Wray. The atlas is from the 1980s and the quality of the pictures is poor indeed, compared with what modern photography can do. But what you get in Wray's atlas is an honest depiction of the luminance of various parts of the galaxies. Bright parts look bright and faint parts look faint or are invisible.
So what struck me when I looked at Wray's picture of NGC 1532 was a row of intensely bright regions of star formation. You can make them out in today's APOD on the right side of the inner arm, starting with a pair of bright white "eyes" (or maybe those bulging white mounds are more reminiscent of some other part of the human anatomy).
Anyway, I can say this: The star formation that goes on in that part of the inner arm of NGC 1532 is [i]bright[/i]. And intense.
But apart from calling attention to the brightness distribution across NGC 1531 and 1532 (and bringing out the difference between ultraviolet-rich O-type stars and blue A-type stars), Wray's image of this interacting pair is obviously inferior in every way to today's APOD by Star Shadows Remote Observatory, PROMPT, CTIO. (What a coincidence: Wray took many of his pictures with the CTIO telescope.)
Really, though: Today's APOD is beautifully colored and superbly detailed. I love it! :D
Ann