The Colossal Condor Galaxy NGC 6872 - with 8.2m VLT comparison

[strongmanmike]

While not a 150hr Rolfathon (still can't believe he did that..amazing) I had a great and enjoyable night Friday night finishing off this galaxy cluster image and fitting in some visual observing under some good dark steady sky conditions :).

Located in Pavo and at some 300 Million light years distance, this group of galaxies is a bloody long way away!... and at over 500,000 light years wide, the huge spiral galaxy NGC 6872, quite appropriately known as The Condor Galaxy, is the second largest spiral galaxy known...she's a whopper :eyepop:

Taken over three nights in quite good conditions, the main bodies of these distant galaxies are all quite small (1' to 2') so the reasonably good seeing I enjoyed assisted in revealing some details :)

The Colossal Condor Galaxy group (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160802507/original) (100% resolution crop)

Close up of NGC 6872 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/161079369/original)

The full frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160801675/original)

Comparison with 8.2m VLT (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/161119808/original) (FOV 6.8' X 6.8')

HERE (http://www.capella-observatory.com/ImageHTMLs/Galaxies/NGC6872EtAl.htm) is a fabulous shot taken with a 24" Hypergraph in Namibia

Hope you are as amazed by the shear size of NGC 6782 as I am....

Mike

[gregbradley]

A fantastic image Mike. The extra exposure time has paid off as the image seems very bright and vivid.

Greg.

[lazjen]

That's great. Was this done in Canberra or by dark sky means you travel somewhere else?

[Stevec35]

Never heard it called that before. Nice shot Mike.

Steve

[Slawomir]

Beautiful image. Colours and DSOs look very natural, feast to the eyes!

[topheart]

Hi Mike,

Awesome to image this amazing corner of the universe!!

Well done.

Thanks very much,
Best regards,
Tim

[Somnium]

Congrats Mike, this looks amazing.

[DJScotty]

Utterly delightful Mike. Awe inspiring :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for the comments guys, glad you all liked it :thumbsup:

Chris, my observatory is a modest 40min drive form where I live in central Canberra and 10km, as the crow flies, from the edge of the nearest outer Canberra suburb but this puts it under very usable Bortel 3 to 4 skies at 600m ASL :)

Mike

[Placidus]

Mike, that is magnificent. There are very faint extensions toward the top of the Condor not visible in the excelllent Capella shot. Uncountably large number of tiny background galaxies. The background is just about noise free. Ripper stuff.

[alpal]

Nice photo Mike,
it's a very interesting pic - off the beaten track.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Mike

Yeah, he he, I just put that Capella shot in to head off Jase's inevitable "need long focal length to do galaxies", comment :P (sorry Jase)...but quite clearly and provided you have the right sized pixels, one can still produce quite respectable results with just 1120mm focal length on 1 arc min sized galaxies :D (think Ray aka Shiraz here too), the 24" Hypergraph was operating at 1800mm FL and from a well know high quality observing site. A 24" F3 hypergraph would be just about my dream scope actually...LOTTO :question: :prey: :lol:



Cheers Allan

[rustigsmed]

nice one Mike, great field I haven't seen too many shots of this.
the obsy looks great too with the milky way hanging low.

Russ

[Regulus]

That's an excellent result Mike. Enjoying just sitting and looking at this one.

Trev.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Russ and yeah I'm lucky to have a half decent site so close to home, best of both worlds. The Zodiacal light was visible in the west for ages on Sun night, right up to the Milky Way overhead :thumbsup:



Know what you mean Trev, the sense of depth on this one is strong...an amazing universe we live in (but will probably never get any closer too :sadeyes:)...

Mike

[TR]

That's very nice Mike. Excellent field.

Terry

[SkyViking]

Colossal image indeed Mike :) An excellent rendition of this fantastic and rarely imaged field. The faint extensions on the Condor look fascinating and there's a nice variety of galaxies all over. It seems like there is some structure near the centre of the giant elliptical too, perhaps some shells? Wonderful work, thanks for the view :thumbsup:

BTW love the pic of your obs too!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Terry :)



Yeah, interesting field huh? Cheers Rolf :thumbsup:

Better watch out too Olsen... that's 15.5hrs mate, hey, I'm catchin ya ;) :P

Yep, love havin an observatory under dark skies..heaps of fun.

Mike

[cometcatcher]

Never seen that one before. Wonderful shot Mike.

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup: what an excellent image Mike - top work, smooth and detailed

[rat156]

HI Mike,

Nice cluster you've got there. A little too cyan for me, just a tweak.

I spent a few weeks in Canberra a little while ago, if I didn't have such a crap memory I would have remembered that you were back there and looked you up. I was staying at HMAS Harman, even with the lighting there, the skies were much darker than at home.

I'm very much struggling with the inevitable spread of population down here, in combination with a fast, short FL scope the LP is so invasive, makes LRGB almost impossible using anything but very short subs. Faint detail in comet tails is washed out even in the darker (Western) part of my skies. Hence my propensity for NB images of late.

Looks like I'll have to get used to travelling, or get a job in Bungendore...

Cheers
Stu

[strongmanmike]

Yeah the skies here in Canberra are definitely better than most, if not all, other cities in Oz, the isolation and altitude coupled with no industrial activity does it I'd imagine.

Cyan you recon :question:...probably my propensity for blueness coming through there :D ... and perhaps your narrowband infected eyes aren't helping you either :P

Mike

[strongmanmike]

I wanted to see what some of the faint structures and objects in my data actually were.

So in order to help identify what I managed to reveal in and around the massive spiral galaxy NGC 6872, I have compared my data to a deep high resolution image taken with
the 8.2m VLT (ANTU) at Parannal Observatory in Chile. The superior ANTU image helps to determine exactly what features are in my image and turns out there is a bit in there :)

This is a tight 6.8' X 6.8' field of view

VLT Comparison (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/161119808/original)

Mike

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup: the comparo is very useful in showing just how good your image really is. The seeing was obviously the only limit in this top class image of a wonderful part of the sky - in particular the fine detail in the region where the smaller galaxy has interacted with the condor is exceptionally well defined.

[strongmanmike]

Hey cheers Ray, yes as I have said before, gimmi a nice little isolated peak up in the northern Andes and I''ll be right :thumbsup:...hey, even one in the Flinders Ranges or even Warrumbungles would do :)

Mike

[peter_4059]

Wow - that's an amazing field with so many galaxies. You've done a great job capturing the details. Thanks for sharing.

[Rex]

Wow Mike, the detail is superb. I love the little pink Ha areas in 6872.

[h0ughy]

well you have been busy again - with great success

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Peter, Rex and Dave :thumbsup:

Well, looking clear here tonight :cool:...:question:...Full Moon :sadeyes:..gunna shoot something anyway 6nm narrow band filters to the rescue :D

Mike

[Atmos]

Pretty amazing what you're humble MUCH smaller telescope can do. Wonderfully captured :)

[marc4darkskies]

No idea how I missed this Mike - probably too teary eyed about my camera woes. :sad:

The full frame doesn't excite me (because it's not 100%! ;)) but oh my, the 100% crop is a cracker! :thumbsup: The depth and detail you've achieved is excellent and the saturation is perfect :thumbsup:. You're obviously getting some good seeing down there.

Cheers, Marcus

[RobF]

Missed this one initially. Fascinating how you've gone all out on your Lum with 12.5 odd hours but only 1hr each R,G,B Mike. And it paid dividends big time. Wonderful field that fields really natural.

That VLT image almost looks a bit black clipped. They need you on their imaging team! :lol:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Colin, the ANTU image is from 1999 and that's a rather small version so I'm not deluded, as I said it just helps to verify that detais are real (and not wavelette/Decon etc induced pretend detail :P)



Cheers Marcus, thanks for the feedback, I was happy with how this one came together :)

Man, the SBIG large format cameras seem to have a few issues these days, must be incredibly frustrating considering the investment $ ?



Cheers Rob :thumbsup:

Yes, I have never been a long RGB exposure man, it just simply isn't necessary, getting the best Lum possible is where it's all at :thumbsup:

Mike

[RickS]

Very cool, Mike! I'm late to the party so there's nothing much left to say that hasn't been said already... except maybe where are the jets? :lol: Great image, mate :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Well...funny you should say that :face:....but I looked hard and stretched the beegeezus out of it and nup no jets :doh: :sadeyes:....I did use some decon buuuut I didn't try wavelettes :question: hmmm?....

Cheers big ears :thumbsup:

Mike