One night, one galaxy - NGC 6300

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Good (cold) weather and almost the longest night of the year, allowed me to collect all the data for this image through 5 filters (LHaRGB) in a single night.

While many are attracted to the more famous and photogenic Fighting Dragons in Ara, there are also some nice galaxies to shoot in this starry area too.

Once again I only had to chuck one single sub from the whole nights almost 8hr data set...aaand manually turning the dome throughout plus a manual meridian flip and re-target

This was a good data set, no darks were used, no noise reduction was used nor any gradient removal, it was enjoyable to process (to 2am in the morning ) .

At 50 Million light years distance and 60,000 light years across, NGC 6300 in Ara is a galaxy with a relatively modest angular size of 4.3' X 2.8' and shines at magnitude 11 so not an easy target. Although it is not often imaged, it does have beautiful spiral arms with many fine dust lanes that are connected by a straight bar that runs through the middle of the galaxy. NGC 6300 is not a standard spiral galaxy, it is actually a type II Seyfert galaxy. Like most galaxies NGC 6300 is thought to contain a massive black hole at its heart some 300 000 times more massive than the Sun. This black hole is emitting high energy X-rays as galactic material is pulled into it.

Anyway, enjoy this quicky one nighter....

Full Frame

Close up

Some more galaxies in Ara are is in the processing pipeline, so stay tuned

Mike

[lazjen (Chris)]

Nicely done.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

That's a great shot Mike - the seeing must have been very good! Love the colour & detail too! Very "speccy" indeed !

[Atmos (Colin)]

Apart from those two Milky Way stars blocking the view of the galaxy core (you should have moved them; moved yourself sufficiently far enough so now have them imped the view), a beautiful shot

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Wow ! A super-ultra-productive evening, and a very pretty, intriguing result.

A most unusual galaxy. We struggled to follow the spiral arms in and find the central bar: there seemed to be two possible candidates for the bar, and two candidates for the Seyfert nucleus. Where did I leave my x-ray spectrometer?
Ah, here it is, under the coffee machine, trying to keep warm.

Perhaps the arms are a bit on the flocculent side like M83.

The two bright field stars add to the image visually.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Nice little galaxy there Mike. Beautiful crisp detail right down to the core. Good balance in the star colours.
Geoff

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

Nicely done.

Cheers Chris

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

That's a great shot Mike - the seeing must have been very good! Love the colour & detail too! Very "speccy" indeed !

The seeing was ok about average for my site but it didn't vary too much during the Lum...I tell's ya, this area of NSW/ACT is a sure bet

Originally Posted by Atmos

Apart from those two Milky Way stars blocking the view of the galaxy core (you should have moved them; moved yourself sufficiently far enough so now have them imped the view), a beautiful shot

I did try and drag them out'a the road but I am waaaay out of shape

Originally Posted by Placidus

Wow ! A super-ultra-productive evening, and a very pretty, intriguing result.

A most unusual galaxy. We struggled to follow the spiral arms in and find the central bar: there seemed to be two possible candidates for the bar, and two candidates for the Seyfert nucleus. Where did I leave my x-ray spectrometer?
Ah, here it is, under the coffee machine, trying to keep warm.

Perhaps the arms are a bit on the flocculent side like M83.

The two bright field stars add to the image visually.

Cheers Mike and Trish, I am very lucky (touch wood) my rig isn't automated but it is very reliable and repeatable Getting a low noise relatively deep LHaRGB image of a modest galaxy in one night makes for a happy contented imager

Originally Posted by Geoff45

Nice little galaxy there Mike. Beautiful crisp detail right down to the core. Good balance in the star colours.
Geoff

Glad you enjoyed the view Geoff , not many versions of this out there. I targeted this one due to an image I recalled taken by Jim Riffle with his awesome Centurion 18 (18" F2.8 fork mounted scope) from Leyburn SEQ, some 15 years ago or so...that was my dream scope and I wouldn't mind one now! His images still hold their own even after all this time.

Mike

[LewisM]

If your site was only average last night, and mine was spectacular with NIL star scintillation at all, then I beat you

Just a bloody shame about my LP issues

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Another good one Mike. Very nice colour and detail.

Cheers

Steve

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Lovely Mike - a great rendition of a tiny target!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by LewisM

If your site was only average last night, and mine was spectacular with NIL star scintillation at all, then I beat you

Just a bloody shame about my LP issues

He he well this data was taken on 18 June. My judgement of seeing is old school, ie I base it on experience and my guiding quality, if the subs come down and look clear and tight and my star centroid guide graph is a tight round bunch of grapes I go Ooooh yeeeah! If they come down and they are soft and pom pom like and my guide graph looks more like a pineapple, I go Doh! (and usually only collect RGB at those times). Those are the two extremes, it's called the OYD seeing scale "Oh Yeah! to Doh!"

It is a 5 level scale: O, G, M, S, D or Ooooh Yeah!, Gee not bad, Meah, Sheesh and Doh!

So average means average for my site and gets a "Meah".

Not sure how this scale relates to other sites though....so it is of limited universal use

Originally Posted by Stevec35

Another good one Mike. Very nice colour and detail.

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve, it was an enjoyable process and (relatively) instant gratification

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Lovely Mike - a great rendition of a tiny target!

Cheers Pete

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Awesome Mike! Too small for your finderscope....

[atalas]

Excellent

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Awesome Mike! Too small for your finderscope....

Kevin, you and my bloody finderscope!...you do know I need it to do my initial pointing and alignment synch!! don't you?? stop snitching it!

Originally Posted by atalas

Excellent

Grazie Big Louie

Mike

[Marke (Mark)]

That's pretty awesome resolution Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Marke

That's pretty awesome resolution Mike

Yeah? Thanks Mark but dunno bout "awesome" perhaps compared to Kevins finderscope...? which is mine anyway ..but not bad for a 12" F3.8 outside Canberra under internationally mediocre (ie "meah") seeing I guess?

Mike

[PRejto (Peter)]

That is a very very pretty result! Very satisfying to look at...and, particularly nice for one night's effort!

Peter

PS Being a refractor guy I don't usually pay attention to big spikes on bright stars, but yours are awfully "colourful." What causes them to alternate red/blue? Any idea? Is it normal? I've not paid attention enough to remember if this is just what scopes like yours do.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by PRejto

That is a very very pretty result! Very satisfying to look at...and, particularly nice for one night's effort!

Peter

PS Being a refractor guy I don't usually pay attention to big spikes on bright stars, but yours are awfully "colourful." What causes them to alternate red/blue? Any idea? Is it normal? I've not paid attention enough to remember if this is just what scopes like yours do.

Thanks a lot Peter! He he yeah that star lower left has a beaut set of diffraction spikes huh? This colour rainbow effect is quite common really, particularly in fast relatively thick spidered reflectors, it usually looks quite lovely but I agree that star does push the aesthetic levels, even for my eyes...probably look good in one of Andy's Picasso creations (That was a term or endearment Andy )

Mike

[Marke (Mark)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeah? Thanks Mark but dunno bout "awesome" perhaps compared to Kevins finderscope...? which is mine anyway ..but not bad for a 12" F3.8 outside Canberra under internationally mediocre (ie "meah") seeing I guess?

Mike

Mate compared to a suburban Sydney backyard it's a freakin masterpiece

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Marke

Mate compared to a suburban Sydney backyard it's a freakin masterpiece

.......errr? or more like ....with a bit of