This deep wide field 52.5hr exposure (my longest ever!), collected over 10 nights, is centered on the region around the enigmatic galaxy Centaurus A.
Perhaps all seen for the first time, in the one image and in full colour, this 4deg X 4deg vista showcases several rarely viewed characteristics of this famous galaxy and the surrounding field, they include:
1) The full extent of and the bipolar nature, of the huge galactic halo around Centaurus A, which covers a whopping 1.25deg of sky!
2) The extent of Halpha emission in the dark dust lane that runs across the centre of the galaxy.
3) The (red) relativistic jet, emanating from the super massive black hole at the core of Centaurus A, that is spewing material 100,000 light years into the outer reaches of the huge galaxy halo.
4) The extremely faint spread of galactic Cirrus dust hovering above the plain of The Milky Way, both reflecting the (mostly blue) light of the millions of stars in our galaxy as a whole, as well as emitting very faint red Halpha light of its own (from the traces of Hydrogen mixed in with the dust), making the dust a weak blue-red colour.
The enormous dynamic range in this image was indeed a challenge to handle, from the ultra faint and tenuous galactic Cirrus (around 27-28mag/squ arc sec in places) to the super bright core of Centaurus A. I have tried to keep the variations as proportional as possible, to keep the scene real and as natural as possible. I also went easy on the contrast so as not to lose any of the faint dust in the seemingly dark/black areas, that are not, the stuff is everywhere!
Not only did it take 10 nights to gather all the data for this image, with me faithfully guarding my rig and turning my dome the whole time...it also took: about 12hrs of travel time (back and forth to and from the observatory), about a case and a half of beer (drunk both at the observatory and in front of the computer during processing), about 6 Maccas burgers, 70 nuggets, 7 lots of gravy loaded fries and 7 cokes (24hr Drive through on the way home 7 of the 10 nights) aaaand about 8-10hrs processing over three days...
Needless to say, as my first serious imaging project with the new AP1600GTO mount, it performed absolutely flawlessly over the 10 nights, consistently autoguiding (without PEC) with average guide errors around the 0.2 arc sec mark!
...loved watching that guide star
...I have a fetish
Centaurus A Deep Wide Field (click on image and surf around with your cursor)
Or look
HERE for a large version
EDIT: Over 100,000 light year long!!
Relativistic Jet
Hope you find this a unique view of a popular southern target
Mike