Abell 2312 - Galaxy Cluster
Abell 2312 is located about 1.2 billion light-years away from us in the constellation Draco and lies also in direct neighborhood to Abell 2311 and Abell 2315.
All three galaxy clusters have the same distance, so there is the possibility that these clusters are gravitationally bound to each other. They could therefore merge
into a single galaxy cluster one day in the distant future.
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In the telescope, however, nothing can be seen of this possible merging process. The galaxy clusters are simply too far away from each other to be seen together in the
field of view at the necessary magnifications of 300x and more.
Of the 70 member galaxies in Abell 2312, I could just glimpse 6 galaxies, which is not even 10%. The northernmost galaxy in the drawing (top center) probably
does not belong to Abell 2312. By the way, it is quite nice that three of the galaxies are quite close to each other and you can actually see them all at once with
indirect vision - unfortunately always only for a short moment before the darkness covers these little beacons from the outer space again.
