NGC1398 in Fornax

[allan gould]

While testing out some guiding equipment I thought I would image NGC1398 in Fornax as it has a bright core and faint arms and had not previously imaged this properly (previously done with a DSI) .
I imaged when the moon was almost full but captured 12x10min subs with a 10" Meade SCT at f10 with QSI583wsg. Just managed to beat the cloud and rain thats set in now.
Originally I stacked with the usual DSS but found that it smeared the faint arms of this galaxy almost to nothing so I went back and re-processed with Nebulosity which gave a far better image. I did only levels and curves with PS3 and a slight sharpen on the image and was surprised how well it turned out.
Comments welcomed
Allan

[gregbradley]

Fantastic Allan. Its very similar to NGC1291. I've imaged this one before and its on my list to do a longer version as its a very interestingly shaped
galaxy. You got a lot of detail there.

Greg.

[ozstronomer]

Nice image Allan, processing looks good as there is plenty of detail in the arms.

Is that a crop or full size?

Did you use a flattener with the SCT, if so which one

Geoff

[allan gould]

Thanks Greg.
I have to get to a dark site sometime and give you guys a run for your money in detail and faint extensions. And I do like your NGC1316 ;) :D
Allan

[RickS]

Some really nice detail in the faint halo, Allan! You continue to amaze with what you can pull out of suburban Brisbane skies.

[allan gould]

Geoff
I just trimmed off the edges of the frame after stacking as the subs were dithered, so essentially its full frame. No flattener used either as this scope gives me a flat frame with the QSI camera. I sometimes use a f6.3 Meade reducer (the Japanese made series not the Chinese made one as that was the wrong specification) at a spacing of 85mm and that also gives me a perfectly flat frame with the QSI.


Thanks Rick, but its a matter of necessity as its where the observatory is.
Allan

[Screwdriverone]

That's no galaxy.....it's a Tie Fighter! :eyepop:

Very nice Allan, the details are lovely and one to put on my list of targets, thanks for sharing!

Cheers

Chris

[Geoff45]

Very nice Allan. Definitely one to add to my list of unusual galaxies.
Geoff

[allan gould]

Thanks Chris, there are plenty more out there that I have to have a go at.


Glad you liked it Geoff.
Allan

[RobF]

I'm with Rick. You can't do that from surbarbia - its too good! :P

Congrats Allan - great image

[allan gould]

Many thanks for the comment Rolf. As I kept saying to my post-grads its all in the details - and thats what is so hard to do.
I think I may have to go to narrow band imaging but that will mean far longer subs but its still do-able with my setup.
Allan

[Geoff45]

Yes, i noticed that. Similar two lobes on either side of the bright nucleus. Her's one of 1291 I took with my 4" refractor a while back.

http://www.astrobin.com/30696/
Geoff

[David Fitz-Henr]

That's a great image Allan; very interesting galaxy and you've picked up some nice details there :thumbsup:

[allan gould]

Geoff and Greg,
I havnt imaged NGC1291 myself so I will have a go at it as it also seems to be an interesting galaxy. Thanks for the heads up.



David
Thanks for the comment and I think I will have to look more closely at my processing as I did something different this time which preserved a lot of the detail which I noticed I was loosing with my usual procedure. The small double star at the one o'clock position kept merging into a single star. It's all a learning process.
Allan

[Shiraz]

great image Allan - how did you get that from the suburbs? regards ray

[allan gould]

I guess necessity is the main reason, but thanks for your comment Ray as its appreciated.
Allan

[Ross G]

A great looking galaxy photo Allan.

I love the faint detail.

Ross.

[allan gould]

Thanks for the comment Ross, just waiting for the cloud to clear from BrisVegas before I can do some more imaging.
Allan

[alpal]

Hi Allan,
Well done - lots of detail.
What does the processing in nebulosity do which can bring out the faint arms.?
I just imaged NGC 1808 last night & couldn't get the faint arms to come out.
The seeing was bad so I chose some other targets.
Then again it was only 1 hour 38 minutes of data.
I posted it on flickr anyway.

cheers
Allan

[allan gould]

Allan
I normally use DSS to stack but I noticed that when I did it the Austosave file appeared to be "blured" and lacked sharpness that was in the individual files. This was particularly evident with the double star at about the 1 O'clock position in the image.
So I tried nebulosity to do the stacking and that appeared to be better. However when I now look at the image the two stars in the posted jpeg they have still merged a bit due to the reduced size and possibly jpeg artifacts.
Ive attached an unprocessed image of NGC1398 and if you look at the double stars there you can see what I mean as there is a clear separation between them which was NOT present after stacking with DSS, so i figured I had lost some detail.
Hope this helps
Allan

[alpal]

Hi Allan,
Yes I can see the double stars which does show clarity.
That is strange & I can't think of any DSS setting which would cause that.
Maybe nebulosity is better?

cheers
Allan

[allan gould]

I have pixinsight as well and I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and start using it for processing as it really seems to have far more specific routines for astrophotography that the other stacking and processing programs.
Allan

[alan meehan]

Hi ALLAN nice shot plenty detail in there bite the bullet try pixinsight youll enjoy it
AL