NGC 3109 Hydra: Big Blue: Faint Magellanic Barred Spiral

[Placidus]

This is a faint galaxy (surface brightness 14.4 mag/sq arc min) in Hydra.

Big one here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-4MgwmjH/0/ee1e95ba/O/NGC%203109%20Hydra%20Magellanic%20B arred%20Spiral%20L%207hrs%20RGB%209 0%20min%20each.jpg)

Wikipedia: The Galex ultraviolet image shows strong spiral arms and a central bar, but there is no nucleus. It is the smallest spiral in the local group.

Aspen CG16M on 20 inch PlaneWave on MI-760 mount. Luminance 14 x 30 mins unbinned. RGB: 90 mins each, 2x2 binned. Acquisition and processing all using our own in-house software. Seeing was 2.2 arc sec, ok for high summer at Euchareena.

At first glance, Big Blue here is the only galaxy in the image, but a deep surf through the original image shows two very nice pairs of interacting spirals, and quite a few very small and distant fellows also showing form, and typically a much more orange colour.

Really good to be back in the saddle.

[atalas]

:eyepop: wow...well resolved....never heard of this galaxy,believed to have large amounts of dark matter and apparently disturbed by the Antlia Dwarf If I'm understanding correctly.

Excellent stuff Mike :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

ps.nice having the big gun working again :)

[gregbradley]

A new ine for me as well. What is its distance?
A nicely acquired ununusal galaxy.
Great round stars for 30 minite subs.
Greg

[Peter Ward]

Lovely gem..and great star colour variation. Nice one :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Good to see you back in the saddle after so many months of not having a camera.

There appears to be a few interacting galaxies in this field. One lot just above and one lot below. Plus all the smaller more distant galaxies.

Like others I don't think I have seen a shot of this galaxy before. It looks a little like a cross between the whale galaxy and NGC55 to me.

I really like the colour.

[RickS]

A worthy restart after the drought, M&T :thumbsup::thumbsup: As well as the main subject and the small fuzzies, there's a very attractive little chain of variegated stars and galaxies at mid top.

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb]

Good stuff Mike. Great to see you up and about again. :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks Louie! Wikipedia talks about it being disturbed by the Antlia Dwarf. Spotted a couple articles about it being dominated by dark matter but sadly they were over my head.



Thanks Greg. Wiki gives a distance of 4.2 MLY, which is less than twice the distance to the Andromeda galaxy. So certainly a very close neighbour, but more than twenty times further away than the Magellanic Clouds.



Thanks Peter!



Thanks muchly Paul. The resemblance to NGC 55 is strong.



Thanks Rick. Thanks for mentioning the little chain of stars.



Cheers Marc. It was pleasing to be up and running in time for the clear still sky over the new moon weekend.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent guys and welcome back :hi: :camera: lovely colours as usual :thumbsup: I recall this galaxy was suggested to me to image (but I never did) becasue it was a candidate for a tidal stream...I wonder if a really long exposure with your 20" beast would show something..? It also reminds me of a bigger brighter version of my NGC 253-dw2 (https://astronomynow.com/2016/02/09/dwarf-galaxy-found-in-deadly-gravitational-embrace-of-sculptor-spiral/) :P

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Mike.

That 253-dw2 is an amazing discovery.

[Atmos]

Fantastic shot MnT!
It is just like a blue NGC 55, there are a lot of galaxies in the background, that 20” certainly sucks up the photons.

[topheart]

Hi M+T,
Wow!
Lovely!
Great to see you back on deck camera -wise.
Cheers,
Tim

[DJT]

Nicely done MnT.
Been a while. Glad to see you back at it.

Interesting piece on this galaxy from SKA in SA using the KAT-7 as a bit of a path finder for later on.

http://public.ska.ac.za/kat-7/kat-7-data-reduction

D

[markas]

Beautiful image of a very faint target - superb.

Mark

[Placidus]

Thanks Colin. We'd had one go at this a long time ago, so had some idea of what to expect. Big faint things (rather than small bright things) seem to be the perfect target for our scope, given that we can collect lotsa light but our resolution is limited by seeing.



Thanks muchly Tim! We wanted to push on last night, but there was lots of cirrus cloud about.



Thanks so much for that, David. I think I actually understood that! I like the idea that a South African radio telescope is a kind of meerkat that can accurately measure the rotational profile of the neutral hydrogen, and distinguish between modified newtonian dynamics and the need for dark matter. We await the results!



Thanks Mark. Glad you like it too.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[Placidus]

Thanks Colin. We'd had one go at this a long time ago, so had some idea of what to expect. Big faint things (rather than small bright things) seem to be the perfect target for our scope, given that we can collect lotsa light but our resolution is limited by seeing.



Thanks muchly Tim! We wanted to push on last night, but there was lots of cirrus cloud about.



Thanks so much for that, David. I think I actually understood that! I like the idea that a South African radio telescope is a kind of meerkat that can accurately measure the rotational profile of the neutral hydrogen, and distinguish between modified newtonian dynamics and the need for dark matter. We await the results!



Thanks Mark. Glad you like it too.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[codemonkey]

Nice work guys! I was eyeing off this one as a possible target soon. Couldn't find that many shots of this one, and very few that were good; this one's definitely up there!

Could well be my monitor, but I think lightening up the background a touch could be an improvement.

[Stevec35]

Very interesting looking galaxy that I haven't seen before. Nicely imaged as usual guys.

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus]

Thanks Lee! We like to set the black point at what we call the foothill of the histogram - the point below which there are no pixels in the image - so that true background is completely black, but no meaningful information is lost. We're careful not to clip the histogram. We know the sky isn't really black, but it is the differences above the background are what we want to show.



Thanks Steve. It is an interesting beastie.

[Ross G]

A beautiful galaxy photo Mike & Trish.

So unusual.

I love the colour and detail.

Glad you have your equipment working again.

Good luck.

Ross.

[Ryderscope]

Nice, I found the interacting galaxies too.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Ross, and nice to hear from you. We miss going to the Epping meetings, but it is a bit too far to drive from Euchareena.



Thanks, Rodney. They're small and fait but cute and cuddly.

[AG Hybrid]

What a tremendous picture. Just looking at it and looking for all the galaxies was delightful. I look forward to more of your work.

[Jeff]

Love your work.

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Jeff and Adrian. That's kind.

[alocky]

A wonderful choice of object, it looks like it's full of blue stragglers escaping from a globular!
I'm glad to see you guys up and running again. Although it may look slightly black clipped from a city imagers perspective, I suspect this is actually due to your extremely dark skies!
cheers,
Andrew.

[SimmoW]

Back with a bang eh?! Lovely M&T, great colours

[Placidus]

Thanks, Andrew! Don't know how much longer we'll have the super-dark skies. The town of Orange, 45 kilometres to the south, is experiencing a building boom, The "orange" glow on the horizon is noticeably bigger than it was 7 years ago. Perhaps we'll be swallowed by suburbia and become filthy rich!



Thanks Simon. It was a good one to begin with, not too easy, not too hard either.

Best,
MnT

[strongmanmike]

Oooh I dunno guys..with Orange having a population of under 50,000 and nothing else even close, I recon you will have your almost Bortel 1, SQM 21.99 skies for a loooong time to come ;) :thumbsup:

Out of interest, do cars travelling along Burrendong Rd give you any issues..?

Mike

[Placidus]

Fingers crossed.

Cars don't seem to be a problem. The observatory is about 400 metres back from the road, and 30 metres vertically above it. Traffic is extremely light overnight - you could have a game of chess in the middle of the road. The road also goes through a deep cutting at the closest point. The two big freight trains that go through overnight have blisteringly bright headlights but they're very directional.

Then there is the occasional 'roo shooter a couple kilometers away. Their search lights can briefly light up the observatory dome. But we've never seen any evidence of a bad sub due to their infrequent activities, and so far we've never been shot, either. :D