Ngc55

[Paul Haese]

This is the latest image out of Clayton Observatories. It is a deep view of NGC55 and the galaxies in the background. The image contains 46 hours of data on this often imaged galaxy. There are literally hundreds of galaxies within the field (see all the tiny orange fuzzy dots) as well as the ones that a less distant. The main galaxy shows dust lanes and clumps of blue stars.
This galaxy is a Megallanic type barred spiral about 6.5 million light years from Earth and is quite unusual in that it has a lot of hydrogen gas within its grasp. I gathered a lot of data in hydrogen alpha (around 29 hours) which has shown a lot of knots and loops of gas within and along the galaxy. I have included it for your viewing pleasure. It took at least 20 hours before the gas loops really started showing up well. I could go on collecting endlessly but I doubt I'll get much worthwhile data under 100 hours.



Click here for full colour image with hydrogen alpha.


Click here for just hydrogen alpha data.


I hope you enjoy the images as much I have in taking them and processing them.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Superb image Paul!

[Atmos (Colin)]

Exceptional there Paul, it appears as if you even found a distant super cluster at about 4 o'clock. All of that data really helps with the separation between the galaxies and the black but not clipped background

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

The H-alpha data are truly excellent. Very different to NGC 253. Perhaps the more tidally disrupted a galaxy the more knots and whorls. One thinks of the three Magellanic clouds, which all have knots and whorls in H-alpha.

[gregbradley]

A super image. Good to see you got your mega hours mojo back.

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Lot's of data collected and has come together nicely in the end Paul.

As you suspected from the beginning, looks like combining the 29hrs of Ha was indeed a challenge?

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Originally Posted by Atmos

Exceptional there Paul, it appears as if you even found a distant super cluster at about 4 o'clock. All of that data really helps with the separation between the galaxies and the black but not clipped background

Thanks Colin, there are a few galaxy clusters in the background that interesting in this field. Pixinsight could not pick up any the galaxies past mag 23. It would be nice to know how distant most of those galaxies are from Earth.

Originally Posted by Placidus

The H-alpha data are truly excellent. Very different to NGC 253. Perhaps the more tidally disrupted a galaxy the more knots and whorls. One thinks of the three Magellanic clouds, which all have knots and whorls in H-alpha.

The contrast between your image of 253 and mine of 55 is like chalk and cheese with how things have developed in each galaxy. There must have been a lot of interactions going on in 55 over the millennia.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

A super image. Good to see you got your mega hours mojo back.

Greg.

Having a two reliable scopes back on line is always helpful. I am working on another long integration with the RC at present which will be one of its last I suspect with a new scope arriving in the next few days.

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Lot's of data collected and has come together nicely in the end Paul.

As you suspected from the beginning, looks like combining the 29hrs of Ha was indeed a challenge?

Mike

Thanks Mike. I did find it a real pain to show the detail in the Ha and even then it does not really do it justice. The data is just too faint to be seen. I had to adapt several techniques just to show some of whorls, but unfortunately I could not get the jets showing. Maybe if I had 100 hours of Ha data I might get those out. I am not sure I want to put that much time into this project.

[John K]

Well done Paul,

that's a great image!

Clear skies,

John K.