Distorted Southern Spiral Galaxy NGC289

[gregbradley]

Mike S did this one a few years back and I was impressed by this galaxy. I thought all the weird distorted ones were mostly Northern Hemisphere.

You can see how the companion galaxy has distorted what would otherwise be a well formed spiral galaxy somewhat like NGC6744.

10 hours 40 minutes. I may add to this tonight as its a dim one. Taken from my home observatory with a new revised processing approach which doesn't trash the stars!

AP Honders 305, SX Trius 694, AP1600GTO mount. 77% QE of the Trius and the F3.8 of the Honders have worked well here to show this "relatively" brightly as its a very dim galaxy.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161582355/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161582355/original large size

Crop view:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161582797/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/161582797/original large size

Greg.

[RickS]

A nice image, Greg, and a very interesting target. The embedded dwarf elliptical reminds me of NGC 1097. Did you notice any evidence of shells around it?

[gregbradley]

No evidence in my images but its quite dim so its possible although it looks more like simply disrupted spiral arms.

I checked images on the net - the few there are that is, and they only show distorted spiral arms no shells.

Greg.

[LewisM]

Really love that Greg.

[Placidus]

Quite lovely, Greg.

Surface brightness of mag 14/sq arc minute! You've done a great capture.

Those exquisite whirls in the tightly wound and well defined arms remind me of a capuccino from a really good coffee shop. Worth throwing a lot of time at it.

Best,
Mike

[gregbradley]

Thanks Mike. I should be able to pick up another 5-6 hours tonight.




Thanks Lewis. I like it as well. I have inspected my processing steps along the way as well which has helped especially with the stars.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Nice work Greg, cool looking galaxy huh? :thumbsup: You obviously had to stretch'em pretty hard but those outer arms are indeed faint so just picking them up at all from your location is an achievement in itself. I can't quite tell, is this meant to be a colour image, as I can see some blue around the bright stars upper left but that's about it? Maybe the stretching had some effect here?

Actually, I only shot this galaxy 1 year ago now, almost to the day...how time flies (In contrast to my rather safe static collection, your setup has evolved considerably since then:))

Mike

[gregbradley]

Happy NGC289 birthday!

I didn't notice the lack of colour. I just boosted it subtley. Not a lot of colour there in the first place so don't want to make it look artificial. I had a lot of attention on controlling colour noise and missed it wasn't that saturated.

Same link.

Greg.

[topheart]

Good one Greg!

Interesting galaxy for sure.

Cheers,
Tim

[gregbradley]

Thanks Tim. It is a good example of how a companion galaxy warps its main galaxy. I wonder how much the Magellanic Clouds warp the Milky Way.

Greg.

[codemonkey]

That's a really cool target, thanks for sharing Greg. Nice work too, as usual.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Lee.

Greg.

[AG Hybrid]

Nice. But, 10 hours and 40 min? Getting lazy arn't you? You got another 70 hours to go.

[E_ri_k]

Nice image Greg, cool looking Galaxy. I like the bright centre and faint outer arms. Would be interested to hear about your revised processing approach.

Erik

[gregbradley]

Haha, yes I guess so. My excuse is the high QE sensor and the F3.8 scope!
But even with that long exposure does pay dividends. It just takes some of the time off but it still needs lots. I am taking more now.



Thanks Erik. I'll send you a PM.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Nice :thumbsup:

..but why not use the CDK?

[gregbradley]

Thanks Peter.

I intend to. I am just waiting on a filter wheel repair from FLI so I have dual imaging setups. I have already done one test night before it was sent off. Both are completely separate systems so if one spits the dummy the other keeps on going!

I'll image the same object with both and combine. Its worked well so far. If you had the room it would work well for your Alluna/Honders. Honders for the colour and the Alluna for the luminance.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

:lol: A second Obs would be very hard to sell to the one that must be obeyed...

[alpal]

Well done Greg,
even Hubble had difficulty picking up those arms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_289#/media/File:Ngc289hst.jpg


cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Thanks Allan. I wasn't sure if I needed to image it from my dark site to pick them up. The Honders seems to cut through the light pollution very well.



Its all about how you phrase it, a 2nd observatory - no, a mere extension to the existing one - maybe!

Greg.

[Shiraz]

that's a very classy image Greg - nice detail and lovely restrained colour.

[gregbradley]

Thank you very much for that nice compliment.

Greg.