Ngc 55

[Placidus]

NGC 55.

Big one here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-P8JvDTH/0/3e0e3116/O/NGC%2055%203%20panel%20mosaic%20Lum %2028%20hrs%20RGB%204%20hrs%20each. jpg)

A strongly overlapping three-panel mosaic, because it almost overflows our field, and we so much wanted that bright blue-yellow pair of stars at the bottom left.

We're rather thrilled to see the effect of the long exposure on the morphology of all the tiny little distant galaxies in the background.

Lum 28 hrs, RGB 4 hrs per channel, all in 30 min unbinned subs. Total exposure 40 hours. Aspen CG16M on 20 inch PlaneWave. New moon.
0.55 sec arc/pixel, North up.

No personnel were frozen during acquisition.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[codemonkey]

Very nice!

[troypiggo]

That's a lovely NGC55. I love that you guys plan your framing/composition (considering that star pair etc) rather than just centre the target and blast away. The cluster of galaxies at about 7 o'clock is very nice and adds to it as well.

[multiweb]

Top shot mate! What I find always fascinating in your deep sky photos is the amount of colored and detailed faint fuzzies in the back. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Holy cow! :jawdrop: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

Did you submit this for APOD?

[Paul Haese]

That's nice MnT. Colour looks really good. Lots of background galaxies too.

[Geoff45]

You’ve done a nice job in terms of sharpness, detail, colour and composition, although I must admit that ngc55 is not a galaxy that I particularly like.
Geoff

[strongmanmike]

Yep a great NGC 55 guys, with your usual colour magic evident :thumbsup: The background is very cool but I agree with Geoff on this galaxy, like The Meat Hook and NGC 247 and a few others, I never liked em for some reason :screwy:...until I actually imaged them :lol: Then ya kind of get to know'em :question: and realise the hidden beauty that you were just over looking :love:...heeence...I am currently hammering this baby myself :D...but I'm not cuddled up with a good lady inside watching NetFlix while my gear works :sadeyes:...buuuut enjoying views of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus through my 12" Dob while swilling beer under the Milky Way :drink: between dome pushes :lol:

Mike :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Ta, Lee!



Thanks Troy. It's humbling / inspiring to think that each of those distant galaxies is another example of something equally grand, and the shapeless orange ones are the wreckage of multiple galaxies that were once so grand, yet those two stars at the bottom are already bigger than anything we can conceive of.



Hi, Marc! It's certainly not the sharpness of the optics that brings out all the distant ones; it's the long exposure and the huge collecting area.



Thanks so much for your praise and encouragement Kevin, much appreciated. APOD's of late seem to be reserved for Norwegian auroras and Milky Ways rising over icy troll's tongues. One can understand their wanting to show off rockets heading toward the sun, but noctilucent clouds and geysers seem more picturesque than astronomical. We reckon we're in better company here on IIS.



Thanks Paul.



Ta Geoff. Aye, it looks more like a train wreck than a beautiful spiral, but we like the intense star formation. Amazing to think that each of those blue dots is another Tarantula. Speculating wildly, if anything lives there it would have to be comfortable with lots of radiation and interesting times.

[Peter Ward]

Delightful resolution and nuanced colour. One of your best images methinks :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[markas]

Great rendition of this very rewarding target:thumbsup::thumbsup:


Mark

[Placidus]

Thanks Mike. That's a very evocative summary of both the aesthetics of the unusual and of the quiet pleasure of actually being out there, making it happen, despite the cold.



Thanks Peter! We were very pleased.




Cheers, Mark, that's kind.

Best,
MnT

[Andy01]

Looks great M&T- not my favourite galaxy either but you have done a terrific job and this imagewith all those background galactobits and Beautiful star colours looks terrific! :thumbsup:
Wow your fov must be really tiny if you need 3 panels to fit this little puppy in though? :question:

[gregbradley]

Very nicely done and great colours.

Greg.

[peter_4059]

My eye was drawn to the bottom left corner. The detail in those small galaxies was quite spectacular.

[Placidus]

Thanks Andy! The big galaxy will just fit the frame at the angle shown, but there's vignetting, and there's the different channels not quite matching. Some of the "halo" at the tips gets compromised. So while it is a mosaic, we've only extended the frame from an original 4000 pixels to just under 5000.



Ta, Greg.



Thanks Peter. For us, the background is almost as much fun as the main subject.

[Atmos]

That is pretty spectacular MnT. As others have said, it isn’t the most intesting of subjects but you’ve done a great job with both resolution and colour along with the large smattering of smaller background galaxies.

[Slawomir]

Hands down the nicest image of this galaxy I have seen. Love the background galaxies and colours are beautiful as well. Well done Mike and Trish :thumbsup:

I think my attempt from 2013 comes close though...https://www.astrobin.com/51495/0/?nc=

:lol:

[RickS]

Very classy, M&T!

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Colin.




Virtually identical. :)




Thanks, Rick :hi:

[SimmoW]

Fantastic team, love the nebula detail and all those other gals!

It reminds me of a common Eurovision problem known as backing singer syndrome. Where the supporting singers/dancers are more distracting than the main target! Great work

[topheart]

I love it! Nice colours!

I am gathering data on this one currently too.....
Cheers,
Tim

[Ryderscope]

There are many things to like about this image MnT. The NGC55 is fascinating in that it makes one think of the ugly duckling the has hidden beauty just beneath surface. I don’t see any Ha listed on your acquisition but it looks like Ha has come through nicely. The selection of background galaxies and composition top off a fine image.

[Placidus]

Thanks Simon. We like your metaphor. :D



Glad you like it Tim, and we eagerly await your version too.



Thanks Rodney! The idea of an H-alpha version is most intriguing. We must give it a go. We smile to think how the very oldest astrophotography textbooks poo-pooed the idea of using narrowband filters on galaxies (since most of the light is from stars) but the LMC and SMC are galaxies, all the Milky Way emission nebulas are in a galaxy, and we know from experience that NGC 300 and Barnard's Galaxy scrub up really well in H-alpha.

[Bart]

Well captured and processed!

[alpal]

Fantastic image Mike & Trish,
I also like that galaxy cluster at 7 o'clock and
in fact when I look around there are plenty more -

you've gone deep with this picture.


cheers
Allan

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Mike and Trish.


Amazing detail, rich colours and so sharp.


Ross.

[petershah]

just beautiful

[Placidus]

Bart, Allan, Ross, Peter,

Thanks for the kind encouragement. Much appreciated.

We had a superb run of clear sky this New Moon, which helped greatly, but the wonderful winter seeing has gone. It was about 2.2 sec arc for this image.