The Milky Way around 11 hours now with 4 hours of infrared added

[gregbradley]

This is one of a series of Milky Way shots I have taken recently.

I have accumulated over 20 hours of data and still imaging using my FLI Proline camera and a Nikon 50mm F1.8G lens and about 10 hours of DSLR data.

Experimenting further with the ideal exposure length for my D800E camera I took several hours of images using 10, 15, 30 and 60 minute subexposures.

Each has its merits but 60 minutes at low ISO works best. The camera is operating pretty much at the maximum dynamic range it can. Faint details start to emerge. Dust areas become more visible. However other factors start influencing the image like cloud,treetops etc, so 1 hour may not always be the best strategy.

So over several nights at my dark site this image was the culmination of D800E plus Ha and S11 data from my Proline imaging at home. Another much longer CCD image is being processed.

I am very happy with this image and is one of my all time favourite images. The D800E worked great here. I wasn't sure about 1 hour DSLR exposures but it worked great. It was autoguided on a PMX mount at my dark site observatory under excellent seeing.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/152300954/large regular

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/152300954/original large

Now with 4 hours of infrared added:

http://upload.pbase.com/image/152348475 regular

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/152348475/original large

I like the dust areas, they extend upwards and below a long way and very little around the centre. It reminds me of the Sculptor Galaxy image by R Jay Gabany that shows the dust jets that rise vertically from that galaxy.

Greg.

[alpal]

Fantastic pic - well done.

[E_ri_k]

That's pretty amazing Greg:eyepop: You wouldn't think that's our Milky Way. It looks like a closeup of any other galaxy, or as if had been imaged from M31;) The central bulge stands out very well. I can almost imagine what it would look like face on.

Nice work :)
Erik

[Regulus]

That's beautiful Greg

Trevor

[rustigsmed]

awesome image, and interesting to see more red 'than usual' in the dusty regions.

cheers

rusty

[knackers]

One word: "Awesome".

[LightningNZ]

Greg - impressive stuff. Are you cooling your D800E in any way. I'm utterly amazed at how well it can handle such long exposures.

It really shows how far these CMOS sensors have come. In the summer my Canon 300D gives an almost white image after 2 minutes just from heat.

Cheers,
Cam

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that.



Yes you definitely get a sense of the shape of our Milky Way here. Also the top right part looks a little bit flat in shape so I wonder if we are looking at the top part of an arm with the side as well.



Thanks Trevor. I like this image myself a lot and is currently my favourite image I have taken so far in astrophotography.



The red areas are the Hydrogen Alpha and Sulphur emissions I imaged using the Proline camera and then aligned and blended them into the DSLR image to highlight those nebula areas in the Milky Way.



Thanks for that.



Hi Cam. No cooling. Just set the intervalometer to one hour and away she goes. I checked the camera after the first time I did a 1 hour shot for temperature. Just touching around the camera in various spots to see if it felt hot. It didn't. It felt normal. There is no noise reduction set in the camera at all. I did 10 minute, 15 minute, 30 minute and 60 minute images. This one is 2 x 60 minutes as they look the best overall.

Greg.

[Larryp]

Great image, Greg :thumbsup:

[PRejto]

Just beautiful. I've never seen our galaxy quite that way. It really puts our tiny Earth way out in a spiral arm in an almost scary perspective. Or, should I say it would be a lot more scary to be closer in!

Bravo,

Peter

[Peter.M]

Now that's what i'm talking about!

[jase]

What a stunner Greg. I think you've found your calling. Time to sell off your long focal length gear.;) Top shelf image.:thumbsup:

[Shiraz]

that really is an exceptional image Greg - congratulations. regards ray

[RickS]

That's a stunning image, Greg! The only criticism I have is that the Great Dark Horse is upside down :lol:

[pvelez]

Superb Greg

Nothing else I can say.

Pete

[naskies]

Very nice, Greg! Interesting to see so much red down the dark dust lane.

[gregbradley]

Cheers Larry.



Yes its got a lot going on in it and all so close.



Thanks Peter.



:rofl:That''s funny Jase but a hint of truth there. I am fast becoming a Milky Way specialist!



Cheers Ray.



Yes that's right. That's on purpose actually as right side up even though the Milky Way is right on the diagonal it appears to be unbalanced in the image as the Milky Way has a slight curve in it.



Thank Pete. I am very happy with it. I hope the CCD version turns out as well. I have a ton of data to put together.

Greg.

[RobF]

Wonderful work Greg. You should do a talk on this stuff ;)
Is that large image native resolution out of interest, or is the jpg still not able to show a lot of the fine detail?

[gregbradley]

:lol: Thanks Rob. The larger image is smaller than native which is about 7260 pixels by 4000 odd but at 14mm the resolution is limited despite the excellent seeing.

Greg.

[Ross G]

Great looking wide photo Greg.

I love the colours.

Ross.

[Stevec35]

What's not to like? Pinpoint stars and vivid colour. I must admit I'm slightly bothered by the red finding it hard to relate to what it's actually showing me. Obviously Ha and SII puts a whole new perspective on things. In any event it's a spectacular image Greg.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ross. Its a different look to a familiar object.



The Ha and S11 are precisely registered to the image but at that image scale it really is only showing the broad strokes which I personally like as it shows the broad extent of Ha and S11 in the Milky Way. But I understand the red may look unusual after all its narrowband and the rest is broadband.

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

Great piece of work Greg. Nicely done.

One thing you haven't made obvious in your description is the mosaic nature of the image.. how many frames with your 50mm have you used to achieve that field of view?

:thumbsup:

Phil

[multiweb]

Love the colors Greg. The deep red in the dark dust lanes are very obvious. The high-res is very tidy indeed. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Marc. I liked how the dust turned out.

Greg.

[White Rabbit]

Wow, nice work. You could get lost in there.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that. It is quite immersing.

Greg.

[Joshua Bunn]

Stunning Greg and quite unique.

Josh

[strongmanmike]

Jesus, how good is that Greg! :eyepop: very in your face galaxy...and to think Voyager 1 is heading into that....

Mike

[Bassnut]

Wha...:mad2: :shrug:. Anyway, spectacular Greg excellent work :thumbsup:.

[strongmanmike]

Awe come'on Fred, it's 50mm man!!...how long do you need to go :shrug:

:lol:

[Bassnut]

55 or even 60mm I would've thought :shrug:. Mind you, it gets a bit hard after that, you wouldnt want that, too hard.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Josh.


Thanks Mike. Yes it is an eyeopener




Cheers Fred.



Actually its 14mm!!

Greg.

[IanP]

Yeah, 14mm makes sense, 50 – hasn’t.
Awesome image, Greg!!!
Thanks for sharing …
:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ian.

The 50mm is referring to the Ha and S11 data accumulated on my Proline. I used a Nikon 50mm F1.8g lens on it and its a 3 panel mosaic which has been registered with the DSLR image and blended.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Wow, This is Insane Greg, & your technique in capturing is mind boggeling, Much Credits to you :thumbsup:

[madbadgalaxyman]

Indeed, Greg, the vertical extensions of the dust clouds in your image look very intriguing and interesting.

I recall gabany's image of NGC 253; while NGC 253 does have plenty of dust streamers and elongated dust clouds exiting at right angles to the plane of its disk, I remember thinking that gabany's image had a very bad case of artefacts ( = things seen in the processed image that do not exist in the real NGC 253). The dust features in gabany's image are much more continuous and much better defined than they are in the actual galaxy itself. However, there is strong evidence for ejection of gas and dust from near the centre of NGC 253 and there is moderate (tentative) evidence that the spiral region of NGC 253 is so active that it is ejecting gas and dust at right angles.

I had been under the impression that the dust clouds seen high above the galactic plane, in Milky Way images, are just ordinary giant molecular clouds (star forming regions containing quiet formation of low mass stars), but the large vertical extent of the dust clouds above the Milky Way plane does make me wonder if there is not some kind of ejection mechanism pushing the gas and dust outwards.

Best regards,
Robert

[madbadgalaxyman]

The textbooks tend to say that a lot of the "very high up" material seen in images of the Milky Way is not actually very far from the plane, in physical distance, and that much of it only looks like it extends a long way out at right angles to the plane.... because it is nearby in space.
(e.g. the Ophiuchus and Lupus clouds)
However, it is pretty easy for spiral arms and even for the overall thin disk structure of a galaxy to be bent out of and away from its plane, by gravitational forces; remarkable numbers of galaxies have bends and warps and tilts in their plane.
So one cannot exclude the idea that the material far above the plane has got there through tidal forces.

As for the gas and dust complexes, I am sure that a few supernovae could blow them "sky high" above the principal plane.

[gregbradley]

Wow, thanks Bob, that's quite a compliment!





Thanks Robert. In my image I certainly get the idea that the dust is being kicked high up by something. It almost seems to be being blown away and up from the centre bulge. Perhaps the output of all those stars close together makes for a strong combined solar wind.

Its possible its closer to us than it appears but looking at many galaxy images dust that is irregular isn't that uncommon so I tend to believe what we are seeing there is the sideways view of the Milky Way and the dust is being kicked up and away by some stream of radiation.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

This one seems to me to be the best candidate for a genuine Vertical Dust Chimney on Greg's exposure:

147685

If that is the NGC 6231 / Scorpius OB1 complex in the mid-plane of the Milky Way beneath the dust chimney, then this would be a plausible candidate for the source of one or more energetic events that could project dust and gas far above the plane of the Milky Way; this is a very large concentration of supermassive stars, and it could well have hosted one or more supernovae.

[Camknox]

Oh My! Wow! There's not much else I can really say here. Superb image!

[dvj]

I'm blinded! :eyepop:

[gregbradley]

Great detective work. It sounds plausible.



Thanks very much for that.



Cheers John.

Greg.

[dutch2]

Stunning image, just gorgeous colours.
Very impressive sight.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Hi Greg,
Here is what Bo Reipurth says about NGC 6231 and the surrounding association of O and B stars in the "Handbook of Star Forming Regions" (which is the Bible for detailed information about nearby star forming regions).

147719

There is plenty of scope for previous and future supernovae in this remarkable concentration of massive and luminous stars.

cheers, Robert

[gregbradley]

Thanks Robert. It certainly sounds like what is happening there.



Thank you for the nice compliment. The Milky Way at a dark site is the most impressive sight in the Southern Skies. I hope I did some justice to this magnificent view we get.

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I added 4 hours of infrared to this image. It was 3 x 90minutes of 3 panels formed into a mosaic and added to the main image. Not a massive difference but it did add to some new areas.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/152348475 regular

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/152348475/original large

I have a 20 hour + CCD version of this Milky Way panorama I'll post next week.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Mad Galaxy Man previously wrote:
This one seems to me to be the best candidate for a genuine Vertical Dust Chimney on Greg's exposure:

147685

If that is the NGC 6231 / Scorpius OB1 complex in the mid-plane of the Milky Way beneath the dust chimney, then this would be a plausible candidate for the source of one or more energetic events that could project dust and gas far above the plane of the Milky Way; this is a very large concentration of supermassive stars, and it could well have hosted one or more supernovae.



Greg,

Bad galaxy man's further cogitations:

It looks like the RCW108 (Ara OB1) star-forming complex (associated with a two degree scale HII region that looks like a ghostly version of Eta Car. Nebula) is also aligned with the hypothetical dust ejection in a dust chimney, but this OB association is currently very much less active than the NGC 6231 complex (see: 2005, A&A, 433, 955).

The appearance of the very-large-scale giant dust rift ("equatorial dust band") on the Scutum side of the Milky Way looks very different from the appearance of this dust chimney. This vertical "dust chimney" could be a feature that exits at (very roughly) a right angle to the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, which could indicate ejection of gas in this direction, while (in contrast) the gigantic dust rift on the other side could conceivably be bent away from the principal plane of the Milky Way; I am very familiar with a wide variety of bends and warps that are observed in the disks of many spiral galaxies.....in fact, the majority of spiral galaxies are not planar and have some bending of the disk....I have previously discovered that, statistically speaking and looking at the galaxy population as a whole, dust lanes are the most likely features in galaxies to be bent away from the principal plane by tidal forces.

Given that deep imaging surveys of our own Galaxy by professional astronomers often limit themselves to fields that are near to the plane of the Milky Way, your deep exposures of the band of the Milky Way give a unique perspective; there is always a potential for discoveries far from the principal plane, as the focus of professional astronomers' attention seems to be the plane itself.

On the whole I would say that the "vertical" dust chimney morphology in our own Galaxy is less pronounced than in some other spiral galaxies where this dust morphology is very obvious; in general, non-dwarf spiral galaxies with a higher rate of massive star formation tend to have more of the "vertical" dust chimneys and plumes. A classic case of a disk with a higher star formation rate than the Milky Way Galaxy is NGC 891, and NGC 891 has impressive dust structures at right angles to its plane.

Nick Risinger's impressive 360 degree image of the Milky Way may perhaps provide a further perspective on the dust which at least apparently extends far away from the plane of our Galaxy;

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110520.html

Looking at the entire band of the Milky Way seems to put the size of the dust features into perspective.
Considering the Milky Way band as a spiral galaxy in its entirety, the Milky Way is obviously a small-bulged galaxy with a thin disk, but I do agree with you that there is evidence for dust stretching a long way from its plane.

Best Regards,
Robert Lang

[SkyViking]

That looks stunning Greg - can't decide if I like the version best with or without IR, they are both great :thumbsup:

[madbadgalaxyman]

Greg,

If you will excuse this attempt, I have tried to emphasize the High Galactic Latitude (far above the plane of the galaxy) dust features by changing the contrast and brightness of your jpg image.
I have deliberately degraded the resolution to emphasize large-scale dust features and I have also applied an unsharp mask.

The difference in structure between the great rift and the hypothetical dust chimney is very obvious:

147814

For comparison, here is an image of NGC 891, which shows numerous vertical dust plumes or chimneys:

147815

[marco]

Wow Greg, a very dramatic image indeed! Congratulation on the perseverance and for having a different approach also using the IR data :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Clear Skies
Marco

[gregbradley]

That's good work Robert. Your stretch really makes it obvious the dust is being blown up around the Sagittarius centre bulge area. Quite dramatically as well. I wonder if this has been noted in astronomy works as they often concentrate on heavily magnified views they may miss the broad strokes.



Thanks Rolf. The IR adds a bit not a massive amount. I have another MW pano where the IR adds more. It depends on the width of the FOV of the image.





Thanks Marco. Yes Rolf and Steven have done some work with IR and I thought it would be worth looking at some data for it. It came out more luminous than I expected.

Greg.

[mbaddah]

I don't know how many times I've shot the milkyway but never seen it like this ever. All that effort and daring to be different has certainly paid off, well done :)

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mohammed, that's a nice compliment.

Greg.

[RickS]

Greg,

There's a large patch at the lower left that glows more brightly with the IR added. Any idea what that is?

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

No I don't know. Also the top right part there are patches of IR brightness that don't show up in Ha or S11. Presumably bright stars behind the dust.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Greg

I will run this idea of dust and gas exiting away from the plane of the Milky Way (the dark nebulae in our galaxy are essentially tracing the cold molecular hydrogen gas, with a small admixture of dust) past a couple of local astronomers who have done work on supershells and chimneys of gas exiting from the Milky Way; two radio astronomers by the name of Naomi McClure-Griffiths at ATNF and J.R. (Joanne) Dawson at the University of Tasmania.

They mainly do radio astronomy work, involving the detection of the ambient low-density atomic hydrogen gas being swept up into chimneys and expanding supershells by OB stars and supernovae, and they also do some work on the cold molecular gas - which is also done at radio wavelengths. However, the dust distribution as seen at optical wavelengths is also a good tracer of the space distribution of the cold & dense molecular gas.

Much of this work comes under the research heading of the "disk-halo interface", because astronomers are interested in what happens to the gas in the disk component of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies; some of the interstellar gas definitely exits the plane of a spiral galaxy, and some gas definitely falls back into a spiral galaxy from its halo.

I am not very optimistic about getting much of a detailed answer, as radio astronomers are very peculiar people; many of them that I have corresponded with essentially ignore optical imaging data.....even if it is relevant to the problems they are working on!!

cheers,
Robert

I would absolutely agree with you that the dust could be blown upwards by energy within the interstellar medium (e.g. shock waves). But it is also very commonly seen in galaxies that large-scale dust lanes are bent upwards or downwards from the Galactic Plane by gravitational forces.

[dvj]

Hi Greg,

A favor to ask. Can you post only the IR image? Is this a near-IR filter from AstroDon?

jg

[gregbradley]

That would be great Robert.



720nm Hoya type filter. I can post it soon. I am putting together the CCD version of the image with LRGB.

Greg.

[iceman]

That's a stunning image, Greg. The splattered red through it gives it a whole new look. What a ripper!

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. 60 minutes for a DSLR is probably new ground. I wasn't sure how it would go. I guess the worry is it could damage your sensor.
I felt the camera afterwards there was no sign of heat buildup.

Greg.

[redomatic]

Greg, Great work, there is nothing else I can say that everyone hasn't already said - Inspired.

[broca]

Beautiful image. Your hard work collecting and processing this image paid off!

[seeker372011]

Wow. A whole new perspective on the most familiar of sights.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Narayan.

Greg.

[ourkind]

Outstanding Greg!! Fabulous work!!

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Carlos.

Greg.

[CDKPhil]

That is a beautiful image Greg!

One of the best Milky Way shots I have seen.

Cheers

Phil

[gregbradley]

Thanks very much Phil.

Greg.

[sjastro]

Congratulations Greg,

I'd like to see the NIR only image as well.

Regards

Steven

[jjjnettie]

Epic!

[gregbradley]

Thanks Steven.
I'll definitely post that once I've finished the CCD version.



Cheers JJJ.

Greg.

[trent_julie]

Greg,
Well done mate , the image is superb.

Trent

[Lester]

Outstanding image Greg, thanks for the view.

[Stevec35]

Had another look Greg and with the infrared it's even more spectacular! I think you have a unique image here because I can't recall anyone combining narrowband and RGB for wide field milky way shots before. Everyone should be doing it now.

Cheers

Steve

[alan meehan]

Top image Greg 11hrs wow
AL

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that Trent.



Cheers Lester.



Thanks Steve. The narrowband definitely adds some interest.



Thanks Alan. Yes its quite a bit. I have even more data to process - its over 20 hours so far.

Greg.

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful Greg .. :eyepop:

All the best,
Leo

[gregbradley]

Thanks Leo.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Greg,

Your scientifically interesting image of the very "vertically" extended (up to high galactic latitude) dust has inspired me to write an article about the various types of gas ejections from spiral galaxies.

It is in the science forum, in two parts, under the heading "Massive molecular outflow in NGC 253"

It turns out that the gas & dust in the plane of a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way does not just stick near the plane. While most of the gas and dust is in a thin planar layer, there is usually enough energy from OB stars and supernovae in galaxies of Hubble types Sbc and Sc to project gas and dust a long way above the principal plane of a spiral galaxy.

Even more interestingly, there are processes acting in the opposite direction, with gas falling into the plane from the halo of a spiral galaxy or even from intergalactic space!

The interstellar medium of a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way Galaxy, even considered as a closed system with no gas and dust being added or subtracted, is already exceedingly complex.
The gas expulsions to high above the plane, and gas capture from the halo, add even more complexity.

cheers, Robert

[gregbradley]

[QUOTE=madbadgalaxyman;1020455]Greg,

Your scientifically interesting image of the very "vertically" extended (up to high galactic latitude) dust has inspired me to write an article about the various types of gas ejections from spiral galaxies.




That's wonderful Robert. I am glad to be associated with such good work.

Greg.

[John Hothersall]

I love looking at this and it does look like an external galaxy like NGC55 or 253. The structure you have shown seems to develop new features hidden in rgb images. Very impressive result.

John.

[gregbradley]

Thanks John. Yes we image far off galaxies all the time but our own does make for an intriguing view seeing as we are in a great sideon position to image it.

Greg.

[naskies]

I like the new version - looks very smooth.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Dave.

Greg.