Hamburger with relativistic jet and spiral meat pattie

[Placidus]

Friday had some moon but had good seeing and was clear all night. We added 9 hours of luminance, taken with the Aspen 16M, to last year's NGC 5128 (another 9 hrs L plus 7 hrs each RGB, taken with an ageing STL 11000M).

Because Friday's L was much better than last year's, we weighted the L 3:1 in favour of this year's.

ORIGINAL IMAGE (2MB) HERE. (http://www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-wNZKtnq/0/O/Hamburger%20L%2018%20RGB%207.jpg)

NGC 5128 comprises two galaxies in spectacular collision.

The great bulk of NGC 5128 is a massive elliptical, filling the frame. A typical giant elliptical has formed from the merger of countless smaller galaxies, including spirals. Any spiral structure, and attendant gas and dust is lost during the merger. The result comprises mature, orange, Population II stars, and a super-massive central black hole.

The black hole in 5128 is very active, and producing a pair of bipolar relativisic jets. The upper jet is visible as two faint bluish stringy fragments, which are labelled with arrows in the thumbnail. Because the lower jet is facing away from us, it is much fainter and not visible in this image.

The second component, being engulfed by the hungry elliptical, is a large edge-on spiral, complete with thick but disrupted equatorial dust lanes.The collision has triggered a round of massive star formation, as indicated by bright blue stars along the upper right and lower left edges of the spiral.

Once the collision is complete, almost all of the gas and dust in the spiral will have been converted into stars, and the spiral structure will disappear entirely.

A troll around the original image (http://www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-wNZKtnq/0/O/Hamburger%20L%2018%20RGB%207.jpg) will show the jet fragments, fine dust lanes extending far from their home, and the burst of star formation triggered by the collision. Many distant galaxies are visible through the elliptical halo, which, typically, shows no clearly defined outer edge but just merges imperceptibly with the intergalactic medium.

All subs 1 hour. 20" PlaneWave on MI-750 fork.

Best,
Mike n Trish

[glend]

Nice image. Not being picky, but can I ask about the double diffraction spikes on the bright star just to the left of NGC5128? There are double vertical spikes the but the others are all singular. I ocassionally see this in my own images but have no idea why it appears. Is it a collimation issue, or related to primary edge diffraction, or ??

The small round cloud directly below the middle of the hamburger layer is interesting. I also see it in my full spectrum images and initially assumed it was something on my camera sensor. Good to see it is a natural object.

Well done. I certainly lack the patience, and systems, for that sort of data accumulation.

[Peter Ward]

Delightful image Mike & Trish. :thumbsup:



It's a binary. Lesser systems sometimes don't resolve this fact.

[alpal]

Hi Mike n Trish,
That's a nice smooth noise free result.
What a beautiful capture.
& Glen the double spike is from 2 stars close together.

cheers
Allan

[DJT]

Beautiful image MnT. The write up was great and yup, trolling around was interesting. Love the blue on the upper and lower edges of the dust band.

Glen, that star with the double spikes is two stars. There are more doubles out than are healthy for you so it comes up a lot. Peek in and you can see the horizontal elongation caused by the 2 stars being close together. The focus here is spot on and the spikes are uber fine which is pretty darned good.

[cometcatcher]

Astroporn! Magnificent image. And equipment.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: You have been busy. Excellent shot. Buttery smooth. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
Where did you get the clear skies?

[Paul Haese]

Nice Mike and Trish. You also have vague hints of the blue star arch which is on the upper right of the image inside the halo. See Ken Crawford's image which shows the position very clear.

Great colour, smooth background and lovely detail. Nice!

[RickS]

We've seen some great megadata Hamburgers on here in the last couple of years and this one compares very well. Great work, M&T :thumbsup: Lots of interesting details in the full res version.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

A beautiful image Mike and Trish. My favourite of your posted images so far.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Glen, Peter, Allan, David, Kevin, Marc, Paul, Rick, Greg,

Thanks to all of you one by one for your generous encouragement.

Paul, I had a look at Ken's photo and I can see that the blue ring is indeed a complete and perfect ellipse. Thanks for that. We're encouraged to try to get more RGB to see if we can pick it.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Great NGC 5128 Mike & Trish!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Amazing to see the jet, good write up too.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Peter.M]

Great data, I would prefer a slightly sharper processing myself but that's just me. :thumbsup:

[batema]

Absolutely stunning.

[Ross G]

Wow!....what a beautiful photo Mike & Trish.

Colour...sharpness..detail..composi tion. All perfect!

One of your best photos yet.

Ross.

[stevous67]

Very nice Mike.

[Placidus]

Justin, Peter, Mark, Ross,

Thanks muchly. We're glad you like it.

[Bassnut]

Excellent Mike n Trish, deep and sharp(ish).

[strongmanmike]

I was trying to pick the word that best describes this image, hmmm? :question: ...so I will say "A mighty Centaurus A that" :thumbsup:

Great to surf too :)

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks Fred. We've scraped up another 6 hours of RGB, yet to be processed. Perhaps we can go for sharper processing if it all hangs together.



Thanks muchly, Mike. Apart from the jet, the bit we're most pleased with is the tiny background galaxies "with form" as the Bill might say. We need to sharpen up the contrast on the dust lanes next time round.

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful color ... its a pleasure to see.

All the best,
Leo

[Rod771]

Really enjoying this image and write up. Excellent result Mike and Trish! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Oh yes!!! A beautiful result Mike & Trish! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[SkyViking]

Excellent work, and I see you've even captured a glipse of the faint outer extension of the jet near the upper edge of the field, which is not often seen. :thumbsup:
There is also a hint of the odd blue starburst activity next to that jet extension. (http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com/Astrophotography/Centaurus-A-Extreme-Deep-Field/i-SCTjz4L/A)
Beautiful image! :)

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Leo.



Thanks, Rod. I just had a look at Rolf's far more professional write-up. See below.



Thanks for the encouragement, Marcus !



Rolf, your shot is truly the "answer in the back of the book", and is unbeatable. We're thrilled that you liked ours.

Best,
Mike and Trish

[Placidus]

Mike, Further on the topic of the "Answer in the Back of the Book", I'm searching everywhere for your famous shot of Centaurus A. I can find the joint combo with Rolf, but I'm remembering your shot. I get swamped by commentators. Can you post a link?

Best,
Mike

[strongmanmike]

Ok lemmi see? Tip, try Googling "Mike Sidonio Centaurus A" :) or go to my web site (Google Mike Sidonio again) and click on galaxies :question: :lol:

If that is beyond your TRS80 computer skills :P here are a few links:

Full Frame Medium size (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/97061387/original)

Full Frame Large Size (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110446969/original)

Full Frame Full Size (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/107086738/original)

Close up (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/97014931/original)

Oh bugger it, here's the whole bloody album (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/centaurus_a) mate

...hope that helped :lol: :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Great work Mike and Trish! A beautiful subtly processed image of this famous galaxy.

Cheers

Steve

[gvanhau]

Very nice Image.
Very clean, nice colors and not over processed.

Geert

[Placidus]

:thanx: Still hoping one day to master the Trash 80 :D



Thanks, Steve.



Thanks Geert, glad you like it.

[strongmanmike]

10 PRINT "MBJ's scope is awesome";
20 GOTO 10

:thumbsup: