NGC5044 Galaxy Group

[gregbradley]

A pretty galaxy group NGC 5044 has a nice spiral galaxy and a couple of unusual ring type galaxies in it.

CDK17 and Proline. 2.5 hours, not a long exposure but it turned out not too bad.

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/153172384/large regular

http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/153172384/original larger size

Greg.

[renormalised]

Nice piccie there, Greg :)

You probably don't need to go any deeper than what you have there, unless you want to shoot the galaxies individually.

[Stevec35]

Yeah I think you got it pretty right with that exposure Greg. Nice little group that I haven't seen before.

Cheers

Steve

[Larryp]

Nice work, Greg

[rogerg]

Beautiful set of galaxies.

Surprised how nice it looks for 2.5 hours data all up. Wonder why I end up with such ordinary SNR in comparison to this after much more time (refer recent examples like http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=113195 ).

[renormalised]

Roger, your SNR might be being impacted by a number of things. Site location, seeing that night etc etc. Might need to adjust the cooling on your camera. You may even have tube currents or air in the tube that's slightly hotter than the surrounds...may need to vent your tube. Who knows...a bit of experimenting might help.

[gregbradley]

I think you are right. Its a broad view image rather than a closeup detailed view of a galaxy.



Thanks Steve. That spiral is pretty.



Cheers Larry.



Yes I am surprised as well. Part of it was careful callibration of the data, part the processing but mostly the 17 inch aperture and whilst at my home observatory I don't have super dark skies they are reasonably dark especially from the zenith to the west. I think this was imaged to the west and gave better data than normal. A lot of the galaxies at the moment are rising in the east around Acemar.



Depending on your light pollution 3 minutes is probaby a bit short unless you are going short for other reasons like tracking. The object you chose may be dimmer. The camera has to get above the read noise to show an image so too short and some of the faint stuff will not get above the noise.

On the other hand 10 minutes at 2.5+ metres requires some pretty accurate tracking so that would be tough as well.

Your exposure strategy should work fine on the brighter galaxies though.

Greg.

[Shiraz]

Wow, that is a beautiful image Greg. It is a breathtaking grouping - hundreds of billions of stars, unknown numbers of planets and goodness knows what other gems - completely out of our reach, but it's ancient light can be fitted into one image...quite amazing really.

[strongmanmike]

When did you get this one Greg? I imaged this in March :shrug:

Nice result, it's a very cool looking grouping, I love the ring galaxies....though, again, it looks seeing limited :shrug: or are you using a lot of noise reduction? :question:

There ain't nuttin you can do about the seeing but do you think the seeing is bad from your spot in Sydney?

Mike

[multiweb]

That's a great shot Greg. Really cool. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Greg.

So many galaxies...great!


Ross.

[RobF]

I really enjoyed this one thanks Greg. One of your best in recent times I feel. Top stuff.

[gregbradley]

Galaxy groups make great photos.



Yes I did this in April. It was inspired by your effort. Seeing in my spot is sometimes quite good. Ordinarily I think its OK.



Thanks Marc.



Thanks Ross. Its a very nice grouping.



Thanks Rob I am glad you liked it that much.

Greg.

[Tom Davis]

That's a beautiful grouping! Boy, I remember your first images. You are getting better and better as the years go by. I am getting worse and worse!

-Tom

[gregbradley]

Thanks Tom!

Greg.

[RickS]

A very sweet little galaxy group, Greg. It turned out very nicely for a relatively short integration.

[rogerg]

Thanks Greg. 3 min is short, I'm going to try longer subs. I've got out of practice of doing them. Providing i can autoguide the PME will track fine for long exposures, I just have got out of practice and often don't have a guide star.

[gregbradley]

If you are using a PME it should be no problem using self guide. A guide scope would be trouble at that focal length.

If you have ever used T-point it will make it easy to get your polar alignment really accurate. If you have a PEC curve then that should finish it off nicely and you should get nice round stars every time at 10-15minutes.

I have started using 20 minute subs on some images and getting nice round stars and that was before I did a 330 t-point model which tightened things up even more.

Greg.

[rogerg]

Yes, I really have no good excuse.

I've been using TPoint modes of 150+ points and PEC from day one, both are trained well. If I do actually have a guide star available 600s exposures never have a problem.

I guess it's a combination of in the past wanting quick results waiting a short time for the first exposure), that about 50% the time there is no guide star so it's easier to just not rely on one ever, and that until this discussion (including some PM's from people) I haven't realised the significance of the read noise of the ST8 compared to the signal.

Better crack that whip and get me back to 600s+ exposures. I used to do 600s & 1200s with my LX200 classic for crying out loud. :rolleyes:

[broca]

Nice work!

[gregbradley]

You should notice better results.




Thanks for that!

Greg.

[gaa_ian]

I love it ! ...now my new desktop image. There is something about a great galaxy group image that just draws me in.

[gregbradley]

That's great Ian. I have a few galaxy group images and I agree they are very interesting. Thanks to Mike Sidonio for his image of this area that inspired me to take an image of it.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

:cheers: it's a pretty cool cluster huh? :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Sure is. How's it feel to have an astro stalker watching what you image?
:rofl:

[strongmanmike]

...I t-h-i-n-k there's a few actually :question: :scared3: :rundog:

[gregbradley]

:lol: Not NGC1232 though hehe. I can look through the ESO catalogue too!

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Greg time to mega up mate. Good colour, great detail but the only thing letting this image down is the background noise and colour noise. Otherwise this is a lovely image.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Paul. I think its moved on now so next year it'll be on my list.

Greg.