Galaxy NGC 1232 and possible "jet" now with UK Schmidt comparison to confirm the jet

[strongmanmike]

This amazing looking galaxy is in Eridanus and while not that big at 7' X 6' shows plenty of intricate arms and HII regions...seeing was only average, some good seeing would have helped (of course)

All done in a single nights imaging...also, no darks, no flats and no gradient removal was performed in the processing of this image, I'm in heaven :thumbsup:

I could see a faint extension in the colour version and sure enough when stretched it looks awfully like a star jet, similar to those emanating from NGC 1097 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/152760644/original) only even fainter..?

NGC 1232 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/153087329/original)

Possible Jet (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/153087957/original)

Comparison with Deep UK Schmidt amplified image (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/153113399/original)

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/153065831/original)

[Stevec35]

Nicely done as usual Mike. Pretty good for one night. As a matter of interest NGC 1232 was the first light object for the first Keck 400" telescope.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Wow, love it.

I also am in the process of processing an image of this. I have more hours than yours and I am very impressed with the depth of your image.

Nicely done. I have a Trius coming in a week or so as well.

Greg.

[renormalised]

Nice piccies, Mike :)

Hmmm...if there is a jet there, it's awfully faint. But there maybe a hint of something in the pic.

[RickS]

Lovely little galaxy, Mike, and a great result in one night!

There's a strange curved artifact at the pointy end of the arrow in the inverted image. It's not a fragment of the S-bend is it? :lol:

Cheers,
Rick.

[Lee]

That's a great result Mike....and a spectacular spiral...

[Paul Haese]

Nice image for one nights data, background colour is lovely neutral grey. I like that. It could do with more data though.;) Mega up dude.:P

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for having a look boys :thumbsup:

Yeeees I see that small hairlike structure Rick...veeery interesting..I wonder what it is :question: the S-Bend has a crack :shrug: :P

Greg - Yes the SX camera is a dream to use and the data is a breeze to process

Yeah the suspect jet like feature is faint but it's there...?

Ah Paulie.. soon to be "Mr Mega" :lol:....I think it's a fetish with you :question: never talk to Martin again :lol: :thumbsup:

Yes Lee it is a beaut spiral indeed :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

Really cool galaxy. Interesting structure. :thumbsup: I can see the jet sort of. That little bit on top of the spiral arm reminds me of M51.

[cybereye]

Mike,

Love your work! :thumbsup:

IMO, galaxies will always "trump" nebs...or is that a "scopa"?

Great image,

Cheers,
Mario

[naskies]

Lovely work, Mike!

[Larryp]

Superb image, Mike :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

A beautiful widefield galaxy photo Mike.

Sparkling detail and I love the colours.

Your recent galaxy photos are becoming a nice catalogue.

Ross.

[alpal]

A top photo Mike.
I checked some other images & couldn't see any jet either.

[LewisM]

Is that a PN or a distant GX above the dwarf companion GX (to the left of the brightest star). Slightly red tint.

Good image Sidonio, very good.

[marco]

As usual a neat flawlessly image, perfectly balanced with lovely natural ground.. Great work Mike :thumbsup:

Cheers
Marco

[Shiraz]

that is a great image Mike... spectacular object and excellent detail. regards Ray

[marc4darkskies]

Lovely! Churning out some mighty fine galaxy images lately Mike! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[Rex]

Beautifully done Mike.

[DavidU]

Great image.
Possible cause of jet
http://scitechdaily.com/chandra-discovers-dwarf-galaxy-colliding-into-ngc-1232/

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for the nice feedback fellas glad it was worth a look :thumbsup:

As for the faint Jet like feature, it is hard to confirm whether it is an actual "jet" say like these (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/152760644/original) brighter ones emanating from NGC 1097 but the "feature" is indeed real as you can see from THIS (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/153113399/original) Deep UK Schmidt comparison I have compiled. I have presented it quite small to simulate having the images farther from you on the screen and this makes the faint features more obvious, I also further lifted the contrast in the UK Schmidt image as the version I accessed was not contrasty enough to really show the feature well. I think the AG12 has gone deeper actually, at least in extended diffuse features anyway..? I would imagine such a feature is down around 28mag/squ arc sec?

The 48" UK Schmidt image was nearly 6hrs of exposure and composed from 5 emulsion plates and then amplified and contrast enhanced by David Malin.

Now under dark skies and especially with the new SX gear, this AG12 scope keeps amazing me with its capabilities :thumbsup:

Lewis, that object could be a PN I guess but it's more likely a distant galaxy association I'd recon :question:

DaveU, thanks for that link, I am sure there is a relationship then :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Yes galaxies have a certain mystique and feeling of remoteness than nebulae lack.

Ah scopa, I remember playing that with dad....:thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Impressive as always, Great gear and technique Mike, always in da fast lane eh, & why not ;) :thumbsup:

[naskies]

If that's a jet, then I have some good news - I see about five more! :lol: :P

[cybereye]

I've got an Scopa app from "What Wapp" on my Samsung devices which I play all the time. It might give you something to pass the time of night whilst imaging the galaxies. Pavrotti, a glass of red and a game of Scopa finished off with an incredible image of a galaxy... what a night! :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Bob, the fast lane is the good lane :thumbsup:



On ya Dave :lol: yes the top side of the galaxy in that crop is certainly populated by several faint furry spikey type features huh? The lower side in contrast is rather devoid of them. It must be real as they are clear in both images and one was taken with a digital CCD the other photographic emulsion perhaps 30 odd years apart? :thumbsup:



Funny you should say that Muzza..the other night we had been at the neighbours for a soiree and we came home around 10.30pm and while I imaged my wife entertained some people who had tagged along, they sat outside the dome with various alcoholic beverages and a guitar...until the women in the group (typical) got too cold and wanted to go inside :lol:...actually I was ok with that as pissed people carrying drinks and dark domes plus expensive imaging equipment don't mix :scared: Was good fun though - while image runs were set in motion, I was able to venture back inside and partake in the slowly increasing inebriation, loud music and crazy discussions all while imaging distant parts of the Universe :lol:

Mike

[allan gould]

Sorry Mike, I think it's a case of the Emporer and his new clothes, as to be perfectly frank I can't see the "jet" in the UK Schmidt image. In your image I see a whole set of Jets and blodges but it reminds me of the ability of the brain to interpolate data to see a pattern that isn't there.
Maybe a deeper image would convince me of the jets but it's still a good image of the galaxy.
Allan

[Paul Haese]

Yeah I agree, looks like a case of averted imagination to me.

[strongmanmike]

Really?...fair enough :)

Thanks for your opinions though :thumbsup:

[allan gould]

Had a look around and came across this Subaru-ESO image of NGC1232 and also one from the ARP gallery of images. Neither show a jet and in particular the ARP image is telling as he was always searching for loops and connections between different galaxies etc. But nothing commented on.
The Subaru and ESO image shows a plethora of small galaxies in the background as well as material (Gas, Stars?) surrounding it but no hint of a jet.
Hope this is of some help.
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Nice of you to comment on an image of mine Allan... after a long break, much appreciated :thumbsup:

Interesting indeed...I 100% see a strong similarity in the deep high contrast comparison I have displayed :shrug:...perhaps they are indeed deeper due to greater stretching? In my mind it is impossible for the UK Schmidt Image to be so similar to mine if those features aren't real..Hmmm?

Mike

[allan gould]

I find it interesting that ARP 77 was noticed by Arp to have the four optical jets in the mid 1970's from wide field images. This I would have imagined that he and others would have inspected Arp41 (NGC1232) and others for any other peculiarities between it's 1966 classification and now. Maybe your notice of a jet will be an amateur first Mike but it would need verification.
And sorry I just do not see any jet in the UK Schmidt image the rest is similar as you stated.
Just an old sceptic.
Allan

[astroron]

Mike I also fail to see any jet in your comparison images,I even used a magnifying glass and could not see anything.
Also I think your arrows point to two different places.
You must have a fantastic screen as I could see nothing in those two images.:shrug:
In your original negative image I could see some lines but to me looked like some artifact.
They don't to me show up in your colour images at all to me.
There has been no sign of a jet in any image of this galaxy I have seen.
Have you been in touch with any of the AAT astronomers on this.
Great image all the same.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Of course.

I simply noticed it in the colour version and thought hmmm? what is that?then stretched the Luminance only and there it was, only then did I look at the UK Schmidt image and stretch it and in my opinion saw it there too :shrug: I am not saying it is a jet as such but it and the other features revealed in the stretch are too uncannily similar for me to completely dismiss as nothing :question:

Have you tried sitting back from your screen? The feature in both images seems even more obvious to me then..?



And that's perfectly cool too :thumbsup:




I would say it is your screen Ron.. and perhaps your eyes? :lol: as I said to Allan, don't look closely at it rather you need to sit back a little....as I said I noticed it in the colour version first, so go figure :shrug:

Anyway, I am not claiming it as a discovery as such, just something intersting :thumbsup:

Hmmm? maybe worth investigating further :confuse3:

[strongmanmike]

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who CAN see the features mentioned here :shrug: don't be shy, I just want to confirm, or not, my emperor status or if I indeed have averted imagination :lol: :thumbsup:

Mike

[cybereye]

I can see some faint "trails" going upwards from the galaxy on your comparison of Aggie's image with the UK Schmidt scope. A bit harder to see on the Schmidt image - I really had to look hard - but I'm pretty sure I can see the main central jet at least.

Cheers,
Mario

[Bart]

Nice piccy. No jet for me either. Sorry Mike. :sadeyes::sadeyes:

[sjastro]

Nice image Mike.

I'm afraid you are suffering a form of Pareidolia.:help:

Regards

Steven

[gregbradley]

I can see some vertical jets/streams in your amplified image. It would take a 20 hour image to really confirm it. They are probably real. Certainly fun to speculate about it.

I have thought for some time now that galaxies are way larger than they are usually depicted. They are so far away and the faint extensions so dim they usually don't come up.

I don't see anything on mine but that does not mean anything as mine is also not that long exposure and the minor light pollution here would prevent that faint detail.

Greg.

[alocky]

Hi Mike - simply superb image, and the lack of calibration needed is remarkable! I can definitely see the features you're describing, on my iPhone and on my carefully calibrated workstation monitor. Whether they are jets I'll leave to the galactic morphologists, as I cannot begin to understand what sort of cosmological process would produce parallel lines spanning the width of a galaxy. Could it be subtle foreground galactic cirrus?
Regards,
Andrew.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for looking and commenting you guys :thumbsup: Well, I am glad some can (even kinda) see what is really quite clear to me this end :shrug:...there are probably a number of things going on here, different monitors in different lighting conditions, different eyes/brains (perception ability is not the same in everyone) and I am sure there are some spurious features mixed in just to confuse the issue. The jet like feature is clear to my eye in the colour version and obvious in the stretched high contrast, so go figure :nerd:

Greg you are probably right but I have already moved on to the next galaxy (told ya I get bored) :D...soooo, I might leave it to someone else who would just love to prove I am indeed an emperor with averted imagination by finding nothing there in a mega data exposure under dark skies :lol:

Mike

[gregbradley]

If I take my CDK 17 to my dark site I think I would give this another go.

Further evidence that there are jets coming from this galaxy is this:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc1232/

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah I have that linked to under the deep high contrast image already :thumbsup:

...why don't you just move to Bigga permanently?...drive wouldn't be that far each day would it? :D :lol:

[astroron]

That is on the completely opposite side to Mikes image, and compares not a iota to Mikes jet.:shrug:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Yeah but no but yeah but. its still showing there is a galaxy collision in process which could be providing the energy for a jet.

Greg.

[astroron]

Surely if there was a jet it would have been picked up by this telescope; as it has picked up the merger/ gas so plainly, yet no sign of anything on the side that Mikes proposed jet is on.:shrug:
I would like Mike to get some professional opinion on this :question:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

I only called it a "jet" for the want of a better description...if is is indeed real it would be more like an extension of stars not a relativistic jet that might be seen in X-Rays. However such a merger may still have produced the feature.

All just thoughts :)

Mike

[marco]

Don't know about the "jets", however it is a very good image Mike :):thumbsup:

Ciao
Marco

[Rastas]

Surely since its an entirely uncalibrated image that Mike is stretching then it would contain camera noise etc etc that when stretched as hard as it has would reveal artifacts. I can't see the jet in the UK Schmit image either.

[strongmanmike]

Actually darks, flats and flat darks add noise to an image themselves. So there is some advantage in having a quiet chip/camera and well illuminated FOV so that they aren't necessary in the first place. Having said that, flats are able to equalise variations in sensitivity across the chip inherent in the CCD but not usually for small specific features like this I don't think..?

Mike