Merging

[Paul Haese]

This is an image of NGC4038/39 which I took over the last new moon period. Seeing was ok most nights but I lost two nights due to poor seeing with winds coming from the north a lot of the time (warmer than usual conditions here in SA causing that). I am pleased with the detail level in the galaxies though.

There are a myriad of tiny back ground galaxies and clusters of galaxies to entertain. Additionally there is a faint hook in the tidal tail to the left which probably goes all the way back towards the cores.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC4038.html) for larger resolution image.

[LewisM]

Gawd, with yours and Geoff's in the same day, we are spoiled for choice!

Very nice Paul.

[willik]

Nice image Paul I tried this did not turn out so good not a easy target
Martin

[RickS]

Very nice, Paul. Deeper than most I've seen!

[Stevec35]

You should be pleased Paul. Very nice in just about every respect in my opinion.

Cheers

Steve

[Peter Ward]

A great rendition. Smooth as silk. :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Good one Paul. This one needs good seeing to make it pop and you've done a fine job!

[gregbradley]

An excellent image Paul. A lot of detail in this one. Often images of this object tend to be a bit blurry but yours is quite detailed.

Greg.

[Geoff45]

Very good Paul. Nice subtle colour in the outer regions.

[Placidus]

Truly excellent detail in the colliding cores. Most enjoyable.

[multiweb]

Outstanding result. As Mike pointed out the core details are incredible. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Great details, well done Paul :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Excellent Paul....beautiful colour and detail and smooth dark background!love It :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for your comments and compliments. Seeing is king for sure.



Thanks Greg, I only used data that was no higher than 2.3" FWHM. It meant trashing a lot of data as the seeing has been variable of late at Clayton. Having an automated setup allows this luxury though.

[gregbradley]

How do you measure the FWHM? I find it a somewhat unreliable measure. In CCDstack you'll get quite different FWHMs if you click on different stars.

Greg.

[alocky]

As others have noted it's beautifully sharp and detailed! I think this is the first time I've seen the blue tinge in the lower of the antennae too.
cheers,
Andrew.

[PRejto]

Really nice image Paul!

I do wonder just a bit about the colour of the lobe on the left as it is pretty blue compared to several other images posted here in the last year such as mine and Marc's (last season) and Goeff's just recently. Perhaps that is responsible for the bluish antennae?

Anyway, terrific result!

Peter

[Paul Haese]

I usually use CCD Inspector for the determination of FWHM as a whole but sometimes view the live images on Maxim. That tends to be tighter generally but I think CCD Inspector gets it right most of the time.



Thanks Andrew, I had a bit of a look around and it is there but fainter in other renderings.



Thanks Peter. Rolfs image shows a fair bit of blue. My treatment was to do saturation evenly over the entire galaxy. All the colour was taken at new moon and in skies of 21.7. I also took my blue data at the meridian to prevent blue extinction.

[PRejto]

You are correct Paul. I had not seen Rolf's image. The antennae are certainly quite blue!


Peter