Spiral Galaxy NGC1232 8 hours

[gregbradley]

Mike and I probably have been looking through the same catalogues for interesting galaxies to image.

A very beautiful southern galaxy. I was looking through the net for some nice galaxies to image and this one stood out as a beauty. A bit small and dimmer than the usual but worth a try. I did a test 10 minute exposure and it looked fine so I went ahead and imaged it.

There are quite a few nice galaxies rising in the east not far from Sculptor at the moment. The problem with most of them is they are quite small and dim and really need good seeing, long exposures and long focal length as well as being higher in the sky.

I took this one a while ago and then got some more data for a total of this image of 8 hours. I discarded around 3 hours worth. From now on I only use 1x1 binning imaging galaxies. Mixing the 2 was not worth it. So this image is all 1x1 binning.

I can't see any evidence of the jet Mike is referring to but that does not mean its not there. This scope at my dark site with the reducer on may pick something like that up in 10 hours worth.

CDK 17, Proline 16803, PME, STi guiding on a MMOAG.

From my home observatory.


Crop View:

http://upload.pbase.com/image/153107795/large regular size

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/153107795/original large size

Widefield:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/153107542/large regular size

http://upload.pbase.com/image/153107542 large size

Greg.

[Ross G]

Beautiful galaxy photo Greg.

I really like the widefield.

Ross.

[alistairsam]

That's a beautiful looking Galaxy Greg, the widefield looks superb.
What is its magnitude and what was your image scale?


Edit: not sure if its a galaxy on the top left, 11 O'clock, but that looks a bit like the LMC

Cheers
Alistair

[RickS]

It is a real beauty, Greg, and that's a lovely rendition.

How long were your subs (10 minutes?) and what was your image scale? The brightest jet in NGC1097 was only delivering a few photons per pixel in 10 minute luminance subs with the 12" Ceravolo and 0.67 arcsec/pixel image scale.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ross. It is a beautiful galaxy. One of the prettiest I have seen s far in the Southern Hemipshere - up with NGC6744.



Thanks Alistair.

Its magnitude 9.8.

Image scale is .66 arc secs/pixel which should be around perfect. It seems to work well. An AO would help with the seeing at times.

The small companion galaxy is PGC11834.



Thanks Rick.

Same image scale .66 arc sec and 10 minute subs 1x1 binned.

Jets are really faint.

I caught 2 of the 3 jets of NGC1097 and it won an honourable mention at the Malins. From my dark site observatory a few years ago with a Tak BRC250 F5 and a FLI Microline 8300 here ( I was running the camera at either -40C or -45, probably -40C as it was summer):

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/108628609

As I recall I was using a clear filter rather than a luminance filter (no UV/IR coating but keeps the same focus).
You can also image the luminance with no filter if it picks up a bit more. The cost will be bright stars will be more bloated. I did a series of galaxy images using the clear filter in the summer of 2009 I think. I got a run of 11 clear nights in a row at my dark site over the New Year period!

Greg.

[Shiraz]

Another beautiful image Greg. The CDK17 and 16803 are obviously a fine combination. regards Ray

[gregbradley]

Thanks Ray. Yes they are quite a good match.

Greg.

[Rex]

Nice one Greg. Love the colours in this.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Rex. It does have nice colours. I like the way this scope picks up the Ha without having to do a separate Ha image.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, that's alright Greg :thumbsup: looks seeing limited though :shrug:...and I know what that is like, I didn't bother trying to image galaxies from Newcastle with the AG12. If I were you I would take the plunge and move that beautiful big bertha to Bigga :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. Yes the seeing is limiting it for sure. I intend to at some point.

Cheers,

Greg.