NGC 5907 – The Knife Edge (or Splinter) Galaxy
Description:
The Knife-Edge Galaxy (NGC 5907) in the constellation Draco. This spiral galaxy, seen edge-on, shows the pancake-like shape of these gigantic structures. It is located about 40 million light-years away.
Technical details:
Telescope: Celestron Edge HD14 with a 0.7x focal reducer
Mount: Paramount MX+
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600
Filters LRGB ZWO 1.25″
Exposures: 31 x 4 min and 21 x 6 minutes in luminance with 16 x 4 minutes each in red, green, and blue
Location: Home observatory in Sainte-Sophie, Qc
Date: June 2018 and may 2020 reprocessed in May 2025
While inspecting this image for quasars, I spotted one at the bottom of the galaxy’s field that has a redshift of 2.5, meaning that light left this object 11 billion years ago, just under 3 billion years after the Big Bang. With the expansion of the universe, this quasar is much further away today.