A Battlestar in Cetus

[strongmanmike]

Three lovely mild dry nights at Terroux allowed me to collect the data for this image and when the moon disappeared each night I had a great time visually inspecting many other galaxies in the area with the new visual scope (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/157983427/original) - bliss :)

The Image:

Looking like a huge Colonial Galactica class Battlestar being chased by a small pack of Cylon Raider craft, NGC 247 in Cetus is actually a nearby dwarf spiral galaxy seen tilted somewhat edge on at a distance of about 11 Million light years away. This is the same distance as to the more famous nearby spiral NGC 253 but NGC 247 is only about 2/3 its size. At this relatively close distance many young star clusters with massive blue stars are clearly resolved and many pink HII regions of star birth can be seen scattered throughout the galactic disc.

Two of the much more distant line of small 15th+ magnitude galaxies, at the top right of the image, seem to be connected by a faint bridge of material, most likely stars.

EDIT: At the published 11 Million Light Years distance, the large reversed C shaped HII region at the bottom of the disc there I calculate as being approx 2400 Light years in size - that's one biiiiig nebula :eyepop:

Details under each image

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/157929594/original)

Close up of faint connecting bridge (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158043276/original) (Known as "Burbidge's Chain")

If you can't see the Battlestar and Cylon Raiders look HERE (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158087851/original) :P

Mike

[DJT]

Nice one Mike. Love the detail on the iddy biddy mini galaxies in the bridge an also the others splattered around all over the place. The full frame is pretty good as well.:thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Wonderful image Mike! I remember imaging this a couple of months back through your finderscope. ;)

[Stevec35]

That's a keeper Mike. Just a little too much saturation for my taste though.

Cheers

Steve

[dvj]

Great work here Mike. The main galaxy is a bet of a "meh" for me visually. But I sure like the chain of galaxies in the upper right of the image.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
that's a nice one to add to your collection.
I can't find a better picture of those other 4 galaxies in a line.
I wonder if they have names?

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dave, yes iddy biddy galaxies are so cool :thumbsup:



Oi I never saw you in my observatory :question:...musta been when I wasn't looking :P Thanks... so you image through a 50mm refractor huh?



Cheers Steve, yes I'll keep it...colour, what can I say? I love it :D



I agree John... well I used to agree, I always thought it was a bit of a boring galaxy too but when I saw the framing I'd get and the resemblance to the star ship being chased by small attack craft coupled with the detail extractable I just had to image it :D:thumbsup:



Thanks Allan :thumbsup:...weeell, if you had read the credits under the image ummm?..you would know ;)

Mike

[alpal]

Sorry Mike,
I didn't see that.

cheers
Allan

[cometcatcher]

Feels like it sometimes lol.

[Placidus]

Oh, Mike, wow! That chain of four galaxies at the top right is just gorgeous! You've also nailed those ionized hydrogen regions. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[AstroJason]

Real nice image, Mike. That full frame is awesome, just love seeing all the background galaxies along with the chain of galaxies at the top. They almost look like a sequence of galaxy formation the way they are spaced evenly apart.

[strongmanmike]

he he, many people miss image credits, always in a rush :lol: I am sure many don't even read the whole post, clicking straight on the image link and make comment after a few second look...ah life is too fast paced sometimes :)



My scope is only a 12" that aint so big...wish I had a 20" :sadeyes: :thumbsup:



Cheers Mike, I guess at least you would have no issue with the vibrant colours :lol: Yes the presence of Burbidge's Chain was the clincher for me to image this galaxy :thumbsup:



Yes early investigations concluded they were all formed together and are quite young maybe a Billion years or so old..?

[alpal]

Mike
Yes - that's me :ashamed:- I only saw the ABCD.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Yep, I thought I'd run with some simple easy to spell ones :question: :P

[atalas]

Awesome work Adama!hey Mike,do astronomers believe galaxies C an D are interacting or does It just happen to look like that?

[Rex]

Really nice Mike, love the detail and colour.

[RickS]

Great stuff, Mike! Not sure how I missed this last night. The itty bitty galaxies add the icing to the cake :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

I wish I could be satisfied with my Skywatcher refractor. But, the grass is always greener... ;)

[marc4darkskies]

Can't argue with that! :thumbsup: Very cool Mike!

Buuut ... when I zoom into 133% it's better :P ;) :lol:

[Shiraz]

lovely image Mike, and the icing on the cake is the small galaxy group - very neat.

[strongmanmike]

By - your - command

Good question, I did a bit of a quick search and while there is some stuff on Burbidges Chain of galaxies I didn't find anything specifically about the suspected galaxy connection..? My search wasn't exhaustive so there may still be something out there about it as it looks pretty real to me..?



Cheers Rex, me too :)



What? you not trolling IIS like you used to huh? Yes the galaxy chain caught me eye too, actually I could juuust spot two of them (A and D) visually through the new 12" Skywatcher from Terroux, required averted vision and moving them in the field :D



Isn't it what :rolleyes:...I really want Marcus 14.25" Officina (now it's tuned)..?..his PME mount, MMOAG, errr? oh yeah and his AOL, ummm? and 3" rotator too...?..nup, that's all..:question: ah yes and his automated motorised dome :lol:



:lol: actually I thought you would find it too colourful ;)

Oi! I did post a 100% res of Burbidges Chain :thumbsup:

Ah yes the 100% res debate..?..often (including your latest and fabulous NGC 253) I think a full size image of the full frame is just too hard to take in properly and the overall effect can be lost plus it shows the warts, which is perfectly fine, a wart is a wart not a death sentence.. but who wants to see the warts if they don't have too :shrug: so I almost always find myself shrinking your full res images in my browser to really appreciate them :shrug: horses for courses as they say but hey, post'em full res, all good we love'em :thumbsup:



Cheers Rayzor and I agree the chain of galaxies is really cool :thumbsup:

Mike

[sjastro]

Nice image Mike.

NGC 247 is one of those objects that is deceptively hard to process.

Steven

[marc4darkskies]

Que? :rolleyes: No reason to envy me - look at Mike B-J ... he has a much bigger one! Don't worry Mike, when you grow up you'll have good equipment too! :P:lol:



Personal taste issue - not worth mentioning.



Debate? OK. I don't hide anything in my images exactly because I'm striving for the best result possible with my equipment and because I'm imaging at high resolution. My bet is that there are others out there like me who get a kick out of seeing how high a resolution an amateur can achieve (from the outskirts of a big city at sea level). Yes, every nuance of my processing is there for all to see, so, if you can see warts on my images then mention them (even if by PM) so I can fix them and improve. I'm always trying to improve so if I know about a (reasonably significant) wart, I'll fix it.

[multiweb]

Good stuff. Always post cool galaxy shots. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Thank you Steve, nice is beige, so my image is beige...cool I like Beige :thumbsup:

Hey envy is not necessarily a bad thing, keeps us interested :thumbsup: almost certain I'll never be able to justify that sort of expense to Angie I'm afraid :sadeyes:... what's the "Que" about?



Pretty much my feelings about the insistence on posting full res and any minor warts, all good, there is more to an image than minor warts...and shrinking in the browser usually takes care of any anyway ;) :)



Ok I will try Marc :)

[SkyViking]

Wonderful view there Mike, the main subject is nicely presented and the detailed background galaxies are a great feature. That connecting star stream is fascinating, clearly a complicated collision has happened in the 'recent' past. Often in deep galaxy images there are so many interesting background galaxies that would make awesome Hubble targets themselves, this interacting pair is definitely one of them. Thanks for the view :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Sooooo, does all that translate to "nice image Mike" in forum reply :question: :lol:

Seriously though, I was never really fussed with imaging NGC 247, like John Gleason said above I thought the galaxy was a bit Meah..but when I realised that I could frame it so with Burbidge's chain and that there was indeed plenty of detail to reveal inside NGC 247 and it all reminded me of a Battlestar being chased by Cylons, hey, I just had to have a go :thumbsup:

Funnily enough.. there are a couple of other galaxies that I have been disinterested in imaging becasue I don't like how they look (:screwy: I know) namely NGC 613, 2442 and 1532..strange, dunno why :shrug: I think I have some sort of problem :question: :nerd:...I may of course change my mind :D

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Mike. Good colour and some nice detail in the dust lanes. Not sure why you are persisting with no darks as I can clearly see noise in your background.

Seeing looks to have been pretty reasonable from what you have there.

[SkyViking]

The large galaxy is a bit bland, certainly not because of your presentation of it but just because of its lack of distinctive features. I think in this image the background galaxies are much more interesting, but I agree the composition is nice :)

[strongmanmike]

Oh no!!!! really?? :eyepop: arrrrrrg!! run for your lives! Paul can see some NOISE:scared:

:lol:



Yeah, bland featureless galaxies should be banned from images :lol: I'll say three our fathers and four hail Mary's and go straight to bed :P

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Actually it is not SOME noise. You have a fair bit of noise, in the back ground and around the fringe of the galaxy too.

Since you are using short subs it would not hurt to either use darks or increase the number of subs or both, as it is clear to me if not a few others that as soon as you stretch the data the noise becomes apparent. This is where doing mega data as you quite like to belittle me over (like there is something wrong in doing that) comes into play. I am sure I don't need to inform you of signal to noise ratio. If you had sufficient subs to suppress the noise you could stretch without noise becoming apparent. It is a simple thing really and each object will demand different amounts of data collection to achieve that goal.

Surely the object of doing all this data collection is to produce noise free images, just like you were looking out of a portal at an object??

I am not sure the snide remark was warranted though.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers for that Paul :confuse3:... I'll look in to it :thumbsup:



Wasn't a snide remark, just me being lighthearted, stop being so paranoid :rolleyes: :)

In the end different imagers care about noise levels to different degrees, that's all... but thanks for your concern :)

Mike

[h0ughy]

its a nice image Mike - don't quite see the galactic view you do but then the isolation out there might explain a few things...

on another note, it impressed the socks off me

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Houghy but really? You can't see the Battlestar Galactica scene..:question:

Hmmm..?? ok THIS (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158087851/original) might help :D

Mike

[h0ughy]

well id be stupid if i said no now:lol: honestly couldn't see that earlier

[strongmanmike]

Visualisation Perception is actually a trait, peoples abilities vary...Mike B Jones (Placidus) is at true genius level in this regard! :thumbsup:

Mike

[gvanhau]

Great Image Mike.

I Like the color and the tiny galaxies spread all over the background.


Geert

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Geert, I agree seeing little faint fuzzies everywhere is appealing :thumbsup:

Mike

[Rod771]

Very nice Mike!

There's galaxies or Cylons everywhere in that background. I enjoyed scanning around image, lovely view! I didn't see Star Buck though :question:.

[alpal]

Yes - I wish there were about 20 Hubble telescopes out there
instead of one they are retiring.
There must be a million interesting galaxies that we'll never see at 0.1 arc second resolution.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rod...for me the true nature of the Rorschach test ink blot in this scene was obvious :P



Wouldn't it be great :)...hopefuly we will see amateur space telescopes eventually.
Mike

[alpal]

Mike,

I doubt that Mike.
How about a 1 meter aperture robotic scope operated by a consortium of amateurs -
all getting their own time to take data & sharing their data -
maybe at Siding Spring?

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Yeah that could work too I guess ;)

Mike

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Mike.

Great colours and detail.

I love the composition!

Ross.

[strongmanmike]

Great to hear Ross, the three things I was after :thumbsup:

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
Yes - maybe 1 meter is too ambitious but imagine if say 5
keen amateur astronomers sold all their equipment then used that money
combined to get a hard core large RC or classic Cassegrain in one of those
astronomy places that looks after many telescopes for a fee in
a proper dark location operated remotely.
The fee would be divided by 5.
What about 2 identical smaller telescopes on one large mount -
one with an OAG doing 1x1 binned luminance & the other bolted on the side doing 2x2 binned RGB colour?
You'd have more top quality data than one person could process.

I'm thinking about it as Melbourne is just too cloudy.
We don't all have the resources to have our own observatory. :)

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Maaate so many options...any way it was done would be a significant on going expense...thaaaat I recon would receive a loooong glare from my darling if I was to ask :sadeyes: :lol:

Mike

[alpal]

Easy solution - you tell her you'll have more time to watch Home & Away
with her as you won't be in your observatory or outside. :rofl:

[stevous67]

Hi Mike,

You've done a wonderful image, with many interesting objects to be found for us to see. The noise in the image is only detectable to those who zoom down to look for it. Its very pleasing to the eye, with nice colouration.

Well done.

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Yeah thought of that.....:lol:



Thanks Steve :thumbsup: Hey there is much more to an image than the amount of noise, real or perceived and as I said to Paul the level of noise each imager (and viewer) finds objectionable clearly varies. There are many examples of fantastic images, even ones taken by the big names in astroimaging, that show obvious noise but for my eye this does not necessarily prevent them from being great images. :)

Mike

[stevous67]

Agreed. Nicely said.

Take care,

Steve

[Geoff45]

Nice detail and framing Mike. The little galaxies really make the picture. It does look a little over colourful, even to someone like me who is not known for holding back on colour. Actually, truth be told, I am not overfond of galaxy pics with the Ha regions showing up like a bad case of acne. I really think that muting them a bit would give a much nicer result.
Geoff
Note added: I've just had another look at the full res pic. The main colours in the galaxy itself are nice. It's just the red spots that give the impression of too much colour.

[Leonardo70]

Great result Mike. Great color !!
Wonderful the chain !!

All the best,
Leo

[strongmanmike]

Hey thanks for the fresh and frank opinion, I like the way you explained yourself Geoff and I totally get your opinion :thumbsup: I think ones eye gets used to certain "looks" or "trends" in looks even what you are used to doing with your own work (which of course your eyes spend hours staring at) sets your expectations. Then throw in the work of a colourblind imager with an incredible and big scope under dark skies and hey...it's on for young and old :lol: I like to add the Ha to highlight the HII regions and this is often something the pro scopes do in order to do exactly that - highlight the HII regions rather than shooting for some sort of "natural"? what ever that is, look :) Of course I also appreciate these "natural" looking images too and on occasions have been know to knock one out myself :P :lol:

Cheers big ears

Mike



Grazie Leo :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Quite agree. I remember some years ago looking on the PI website gallery and thinking that the pics were overdone. Now I think they look "natural". Stars are a similar issue. I used to think that hard well-defined edges were the goer but now I want them to fade away with a Gaussian distribution
Geoff

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, I remember when many of the top RCOS deep sky images had Christmas bobble like stars and many loved'em, then minimising the stars became more popular, oh and then there was noise reduction :scared:...it became normal at one stage to have an image look like it was made of plastic, particularly ones taken with the first DSLR's like the 300D :)

Imaging processing fashions...come and go... and then make a resurgence :lol:

Mike

[alpal]

I think most images can do with a tiny LAB boost of colour - other wise they look washed out.
Controlling bright stars is always a problem.
A one minute exposure of each of RGB helps a lot later to tame the stars -
you never hit the full well depth -
& think about it it only takes 3 to 4 minutes to complete -
well worth the small amount of time on a many hours imaging session.

[rogerg]

Awesome image of the galaxy Mike and now I'm craving some BSG episodes :)

[strongmanmike]

Oooh yeah, I too was a huge BSG fan as a kid, loved that show, even created my own major drama piece based on it for English in Yr11 (1984) :P - by your command :thumbsup:

Glad you liked the look of the galaxy too Roger :)

Mike