Galaxy Group in Southern Virgo - Now in colour

[strongmanmike]

Managed to get the colour for the NGC 5044 galaxy group in southern Virgo :prey:...although it was collected under a near full moon :sadeyes:....:doh:

If anyone has ever taken RGB data under a near full moon with the object less than 45deg away from the moon...you will know how hard this set was to process :scared: Actually, I had to add a 200mm cardboard extension screen to the front of the scope, (held on with cloths pegs :lol: ) to stop the moonlight, which was shining down the inside of the tube, from entering the corrector :rolleyes:

This is quite a short exposure of just LHaRGB = 90 30 40 40 40min (Ha was collected to help reveal the HII regions in the spiral NGC 5054) and there is deffinitely galactic cirrus present in the field too but gradient removal techniques (BLOODY MOON!) have corrupted the subtle variations in the background so I have not tried to enhance it

Close up of the main group members (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/149392085/original)

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/149392089/original) (To surf)

Spiral Galaxy NGC 5054 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/149392162/original) (this is a fairly small galaxy at 5.1' X 2.8' in size)

Could have been deeper ie longer exposure but I am impatient, should not have collected RGB under a full moon but I am impatient and should have the scope under the Sirius Dome...:question: but I am procrastinating...:lol:

Mike

[blink138]

it is a very silly photo mike!!
overwhelming really...... and hard to get your head around
we are small and deflatingly insignificant!
pat

[jsmoraes]

Well done. The galaxies are very nice. Despite of difficulties reported. Congratulations.

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz, that's a really nice image Mike. Love it.

Greg.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
that's a great image - & it was very interesting to surf around -
so many galaxies.

cheers
Allan

[cybereye]

Mike,

I just went for a surf. Dead set gnarley man! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

[h0ughy]

pretty ordinary :bowdown: :clap: :jawdrop: - i expect tripple the effort next time 8.9/10

[DavidU]

I'm speechless !!!!!!!! How cool is that:thumbsup:

[avandonk]

Mike I can only imagine what you will produce with your system in an observatory and more data with no Moon.

My boss used to say 'when in doubt just collect data, it is always better than none at all!'

It was only a few decades before I was born that there was only one known galaxy, the Milky Way.

Bert

[allan gould]

Really nice image Mike with no hint of Vegas at all. The subtle colouring and detail really make the image.
Allan

[graham.hobart]

gobsmacking! -the full frame. All those galaxies man!
beautiful Mike
regards
Graz

[strongmanmike]

I was quite happy with the result considering, one day I will have the scope on a high, dry, clear and steady mountain top inside an observatory :P



Cheers Jorges see response to Pat :)



Glad to hear it Greg, in a good housing and under good conditions without a Moon torch :eyepop: I would have been much happier though :rolleyes: :thumbsup:



Cheers Allan, I love good sized galaxy fields with some resolution, it always causes contemplation...



Hey! hang ten dude :cool: non ti scodar di me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmdEDKW90Y) :bowdown:



8.9 huh? Meeah? not too bad, thanks :thumbsup:



You need Lewis M to help you out Dave :P



Yes, can't wait myself... e-ven-tua-lly (Manuel Faulty Towers)



Really?? RIGHT :mad2: back to the repro board to get me some neon, bah! :P



Soething about lots of galaxies Graz huh? ;)

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Cool looking image for such a short amount of integration time. What are you sub exposure lengths? Are you still using 10 minutes? Any idea what your background ADU is on the subs?

Nice image.

[multiweb]

Pure eye candy. Lovely field and resolution. :thumbsup:

[cybereye]

Pavrotti - how could you forget him! But here's one of my favourite Italian artists with a tune that's just perfect for a rousing sing-a-long.... and no it's not Joe Dolce!! No, this song, Gli altri siamo noi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ligdy0Jh_dw), is one that I love to sing along to and the sentiments behind it are just as current today as they were back in the early 90's.

The title says it all and from your fantastic image it's pretty obvious we are!! I can just imagine it now, the hills of Wallaroo would definitely come alive with this blasting across the countryside...:thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice Mike! :thumbsup: I love fields like this - stretches the imagination huh?

Cheers, Marcus

[h0ughy]

would have been more mike but your just teasing with the data. how much more would you have got in that shot if you went longer? its a travesty ;)

[alpal]

Mike


Yes it's interesting to see a galaxy field as part of a super-structure & filaments in the Universe.

Note: your link to NGC 5054,
the image has a typo - it says NGC 5044.

This was the only other image I could find of NGC 5054:

http://server5.wikisky.org/starview?object=NGC+5054&locale=SR

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

I use only 5min subs actually, to avoid differential flexure (yeah I know, I should do something about it..I will, I will...). checking the peak of the histogram curve, ADU background on a single 5min sub is about 2500, on a 90 min stack of 5min subs about 500...?



Cheers Marc, sweet :P



Yes, agree about the title...but sorry, Pav rules :D



Thanks Marcus, yes it is fields such as this that I really wanted to use this scope for, there was no chance under the blurry and heavily light polluted skies of Newcastle :sadeyes: hence the monopoly on colourful emission nebulae with NB filters for over a year.



Not that much really, there is some foreground galactic cirrus in there but although there was little wind and average seeing, the Lum was taken on a night of poor transparency and some high cloud and the RGB with a near full moob, so I couldn't do a good job of revealing the galactic cirrus. It's there but has been corrupted by gradient removal anmd high cloud, so I am not sure what is GC and what is redistributed background and or Earth cloud :shrug: so I didn't try and enhance it.



Cheers Allan, not an often imaged galaxy area actually and I have fixed that typo, thanks :)

Mike

[Ken]

Well done, this Galaxy field is truly inspirational.
Clear skies Ken.

[Larryp]

Beautiful work, Mike:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Nice to hear Ken :)



Thanks Laurie, glad you think so :thumbsup:

Mike

[prokyon]

Wow, great work Mike!

It is a pleasure to surf through the image. Love pics like that, so many tiny glaxies.

[RickS]

Great stuff, Mike! Even your crap images are fantastic :lol:

[Paul Haese]

Wow that makes a huge impact. Just by comparison I have on single Lum subs with the 4" at 10 minutes are 1111 ADU. The colour of course is around 430 ADU with 5 minutes subs. That means so much more time involved. I really must go back to 10 minutes subs overall. Thanks for the reminder.

Once you go to OAG you will never look back Mike. No more differential flexure again. If you do go that way, I can recommend the SBIG ST-i guide camera. Very nice and lots of bright stars. Mind you the light bucket you have it gets the job done in a quarter of the time I need with the 102.

[strongmanmike]

I have this (SX H694, Loadstar, OAG, SXCFW and full set of Astronomik filters) galaxy gun waiting for me to pull my finger out :D...I hate change in my imaging rig, once I have a system chugging nicely I am loathed to change it, I baulk at tinkering and getting technology to work, it is the imaging I like :lol:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Guys...and I do my fair share of crap :help:

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Yeah I know what you mean. Took me ages to attempt focusmax and got it going in a couple of hours and wondered why on earth I had procrastinated for so long. Well you have the gear that is the main thing.:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Halleluluja brother! I agree. Having a few setups makes for trouble every time I switch.

Greg.

[Stevec35]

Very nice Mike. Incredibly good considering the moon.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

I am also hesitant to get the SX gear attached until I have the protection of a dome, I am concerned the main benefits of the new system (small pixels and OAG) would be mostly negated by the pesky wind I get here..? :sadeyes:



Cheers Steve, yes I was desperate I guess :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

OAG could give you a big gain. You may be able to do 10 minute exposures with that. I'd be whacking that on first. OAG are the way to go even if they are a tad fiddly. Focus your main imaging camera. Then focus the guide camera. Put a bit of masking tape on the guide camera so you know where it comes to focus next time in case you take it off.
That can save a lot of time. Distance from start of OAG to main camera sensor has to be the same as start of OAG to guide camera. That will help get it focused. If you are too far off guide stars are so out of focus they become invisible. You have to be reasonably close to focus on the guide camera to see the guide stars. It also helps to go to an area of bright stars when doing this for the first time.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Ah yes, got all that Greg, cheers ;)

Mike

[gregbradley]

I almost gave up on using my MMOAG at first as I could not get the guide camera to focus until I got the guide cam quite close to focus. I tried a few times and got nowhere. There was no evidence of a star in the too out of focus guide camera image. It was really frustrating. It really has to be relatively close to focus to see any guide star from the guide cam - at least with the MMOAG.Once I measured the distances I saw the guide cam holder had to be the 2nd focus tube they provided. The first focus tube was way off.

Greg.

[peter_4059]

Despite the adverse conditions it is still a great image Mike. Really like the framing and the details in the small galaxies are amazing.

[SkyViking]

Yummy, the colour version that we've been waiting for! Nothing less than stunning, Mike. There really isn't anything quite like a nice smooth galaxy field :D :thumbsup:



Some interesting comments regarding sub length. I notice that many people swear to use very long sub exposures, but I found that S/N in the stacked image is actually higher for a correspondingly larger number of shorter subs (10x300s has higher S/N than 5x600s).
Depending on your equipment and sky conditions you may not have to increase your sub lengths Mike. Have you tried a test, as in stacking 10 subs of 5mins versus 5 subs of 10mins etc. and see which give you the highest S/N in the final image?

I experimented to find the optimal sub length for my combination of sky and equipment, which seems to be when background ADU reaches 1500-2000. The optimal ADU count is only dependent on the sensor properties, and optimal sub legth is then simpy the time it takes to reach that count. For me it is typically 5 minutes, so I stick to that.
Also, when the Moon is up I use correspondingly shorter exposures to keep the background ADU count in the optimal range in order to still gather maximum S/N under the brighter conditions. It's all about optimising the data collection during those precious clear hours :D

Cheers,
Rolf

[Shiraz]

what an excellent image - top shelf.

will be very interested to see your new cam come online - should only need 2 minute subs with that one. Regards Ray

[DJT]

Beautiful image Mike. Nothing better than swimming around in an ocean of galaxies. Gawd help us when you start getting some pwoper data together from the Obsy. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

No haven't tested that yet but all sounds about right to me too Rolf ;)...30min subs :shrug: :question: baaah...maybe 10 min once I have the SX OAG running :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Ray and David...I made the first moves on the road to getting the pier and slab under way...went and saw the neighbour to organise borrowing his Bobcat and post hole digger sometime over the next week :thumbsup:

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Mike -
I hope you'll show us all the progress with this observatory?

I know one guy who lay a 40 tonne slap of concrete just to mount his 24" Newt -
& he had a floating floor so footsteps wouldn't rock his telescope!

[strongmanmike]

I will :thumbsup:

Mike

[Ross G]

A great phtoto Mike.

Amazing detail....love all the galaxies!

Ross.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Ross...time for another me thinks :thumbsup:.

Fingers crossed it is clear a couple of nights over the coming new moon :prey:

Mike

[ChrisM]

A wonderful image Mike. Just loved surfing around. Looking forward to another image of the same region once you have better conditions etc.
Chris

[petershah]

another beauty mike :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Chris...but not sure I'll come back to this field again in a hurry...too many other cool things to hammer :thumbsup:




Cheers Peter, as I said in my reply to your latest post, we have formidable scopes in our hands ;)

Mike

[tornado33]

Great work. The HA data shows up well in the galaxy there, good to see the scope going nice and deep.
Scott

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Scotty :thumbsup: