ngc1316 galaxy eater

[Shiraz]

NGC1316 is an elliptical with clearly visible shells and knots in the structure, resulting from past galaxy interactions. It has an extensive halo of previous galaxy-encounter debris that encloses the smaller NGC1317 - which is in the process of being drawn in. NGC1316 is apparently a strong radio source as the central massive black hole devours in-falling material.

Image quality is not too good (noisy, heavy processing and a gradient), but it is the best I could get from ~3.5 hours between clouds on two nights. Maybe it is just good enough to show what an impressive object this is. Hope the sky gets a bit kinder and allows enough data for a full res image (had to software bin to boost the very modest SNR in this effort). Image cropped about 50% for composition. Thanks for looking. Regards ray

[alpal]

Hi Ray,
That's a nice job.
It's such a good area of the sky.

cheers
Allan

[clive milne]

That's still a belter of an image Ray in spite of the difficulties you experienced during the acquisition process.

[Lee]

Nice image Ray....
What do you mean by 'software binning' - is it different to binning on-camera?

[RickS]

A very cool galaxy grouping, Ray! The "shells" around NGC 1316 look similar to the ones seen around NGC 1097A resulting from the interaction with NGC 1097.

[allan gould]

Excellent image Ray and I like the faint arms and apparent interaction of the galaxies. Nice composition as well.
Allan

[multiweb]

That's a very nice shot Ray. Great colours and details. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

That's a very good NGC1316 Ray. You got the shells and the irregular shape very well.

Greg.

[Shiraz]

thanks Allan - sure is some interesting stuff up there.


many thanks Clive. The galaxy is so interesting that it seemed to be worth posting regardless of quality.


thanks Lee. I used Nebulosity, which has a software binning function. works the same as binning on camera, but adds 4 "read noises" rather than one - if you have a low read noise camera though, it can work out to be almost as effective at noise reduction as perfect hardware binning. Nice to be able to use it after the event.



thanks very much Rick. will now look up 1097. EDIT: sure is a remarkably similar structure in 1097A. Almost looks like shock waves or ripples - although the "fluid" of a galaxy must be quite different to liquid or gas, I guess that the maths could be similar in some ways?


Thanks a lot Allan. As far as I can tell from reading, it seems that the interaction is generally accepted to be taking place - NGC1316 is 100 million years into the process of dismantling NGC1317.

Thanks very much Marc

Thanks Greg. Could have done better, but that is not always possible - nice to have something to post in any event and was a good way to develop some new processing skills trying to dig something useful out of the noise floor.

Regards Ray

[Stevec35]

Well done Ray. One of the better images I've seen of this galaxy.

Cheers

Steve

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Good work Ray!:thumbsup:

You certainly get the most out of you 8" scope, definitely impressive.
Is the way you've setup the scope, or combination of scope, CCD and processing?

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike]

Considering the, shall we say, less than mega data :( pretty good job Ray :thumbsup: There is more outer stuff that I am sure you could reveal with some more exposure but the shell structure is showing nicely and the circular spiral structure of 1317 is quite clear, is that the full field?..you need a bit more to fit it all in.

Mike

[Shiraz]

thanks Steve, appreciate the comment


Hi Justin. the scope is generally working somewhat better than the owner :). As you know, these scopes need careful attention to alignment stability and focus. biggest gain was from the combination of the RCC1 (no noticeable SA) and the small, low noise pixels of the mono 694 (gives 1.17 arcsec sampling). When seeing is good it seems to do OK.



thanks Mike. its not the full field, but there was not much visible elsewhere at this exposure. It really needed a lot more to get the outer regions at low noise and still preserve the globulars, but there was almost continuous cloud cover for the moon-free fortnight - except of course for the night that I had to be at a family gathering. will try again when the moon goes away - maybe. I really need to do more than 15 minutes each on the RGBs as a start.

regards Ray

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks for the reply Ray!

Always look for your images with keen interest.
Hopeto have something similar to your setup eventually.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Ross G]

A very nice looking galaxy photo Ray.

Ross.

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful image.

All the best,
Leo

[Shiraz]

thanks very much Ross.


thanks Leo - appreciated.

regards Ray