NGC 3109 Hydra: Big Blue: Faint Magellanic Barred Spiral

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Nice, I found the interacting galaxies too.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

A beautiful galaxy photo Mike & Trish.

So unusual.

I love the colour and detail.

Glad you have your equipment working again.

Good luck.

Ross.

Thanks, Ross, and nice to hear from you. We miss going to the Epping meetings, but it is a bit too far to drive from Euchareena.

Originally Posted by Ryderscope

Nice, I found the interacting galaxies too.

Thanks, Rodney. They're small and fait but cute and cuddly.

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

What a tremendous picture. Just looking at it and looking for all the galaxies was delightful. I look forward to more of your work.

[Jeff]

Love your work.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

What a tremendous picture. Just looking at it and looking for all the galaxies was delightful. I look forward to more of your work.

Originally Posted by Jeff

Love your work.

Thanks muchly, Jeff and Adrian. That's kind.

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

A wonderful choice of object, it looks like it's full of blue stragglers escaping from a globular!
I'm glad to see you guys up and running again. Although it may look slightly black clipped from a city imagers perspective, I suspect this is actually due to your extremely dark skies!
cheers,
Andrew.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Back with a bang eh?! Lovely M&T, great colours

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by alocky

A wonderful choice of object, it looks like it's full of blue stragglers escaping from a globular!
I'm glad to see you guys up and running again. Although it may look slightly black clipped from a city imagers perspective, I suspect this is actually due to your extremely dark skies!
cheers,
Andrew.

Thanks, Andrew! Don't know how much longer we'll have the super-dark skies. The town of Orange, 45 kilometres to the south, is experiencing a building boom, The "orange" glow on the horizon is noticeably bigger than it was 7 years ago. Perhaps we'll be swallowed by suburbia and become filthy rich!

Originally Posted by SimmoW

Back with a bang eh?! Lovely M&T, great colours

Thanks Simon. It was a good one to begin with, not too easy, not too hard either.

Best,
MnT

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Placidus

Thanks, Andrew! Don't know how much longer we'll have the super-dark skies. The town of Orange, 45 kilometres to the south, is experiencing a building boom, The "orange" glow on the horizon is noticeably bigger than it was 7 years ago. Perhaps we'll be swallowed by suburbia and become filthy rich!

Best,
MnT

Oooh I dunno guys..with Orange having a population of under 50,000 and nothing else even close, I recon you will have your almost Bortel 1, SQM 21.99 skies for a loooong time to come

Out of interest, do cars travelling along Burrendong Rd give you any issues..?

Mike

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Oooh I dunno guys..with Orange having a population of under 50,000 and nothing else even close, I recon you will have your almost Bortel 1, SQM 21.99 skies for a loooong time to come

Out of interest, do cars travelling along Burrendong Rd give you any issues..?

Mike

Fingers crossed.

Cars don't seem to be a problem. The observatory is about 400 metres back from the road, and 30 metres vertically above it. Traffic is extremely light overnight - you could have a game of chess in the middle of the road. The road also goes through a deep cutting at the closest point. The two big freight trains that go through overnight have blisteringly bright headlights but they're very directional.

Then there is the occasional 'roo shooter a couple kilometers away. Their search lights can briefly light up the observatory dome. But we've never seen any evidence of a bad sub due to their infrequent activities, and so far we've never been shot, either.