Fornax cluster

[Paul Haese]

This is an image I have been collecting for several months. To be honest I am unimpressed with how it looks. The composition is ok but it just lacks any punch in my opinion. I have done several processing runs, battled with a gradient that occurred from high cloud, recollected more data and now I am just done with it. I won't bother collecting more and trying to make a sow's ear into a silk purse. It currently contains 13.3 hours of data.

Of interest is all the galaxies both near and far in the field. That was my intent to show the galaxies in this field. I think it needs a mount of data to bright out the really faint fuzzies but do I want to go that far?

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/FornaxCluster.html) for larger resolution image.

[prokyon]

I think you can be very happy with that result! Nice details and so many faint galaxies in the back. And I like the colors too.

[plantnerd]

I think your data and processing looks pretty nice. I took my first subs of this region the other night I will persist to gather more data to get something like yours.

My only critique on your image would be that The composition appears slightly off balance the Great Barred spiral is such a majestic object and it draws the eye instantly but IMHO in your image it is a little too close to the edge of frame and the balance of composition with the large galaxy near top right is slightly disharmonious. If you could reframe a little further off the bottom left it would make a nice harmonious composition.
Keep up the great work mate!

[Placidus]

Great shot. There's a lot of galactic astrophysics going on there. One can almost feel that intergalactic gas sizzle.

Magnificent contrast between the foreground NGC 1365 with its spectacular burst of star formation, versus the dull pink glow of the by comparison enormous but further back rich pensioner dominant elliptical (1399?). You've picked up a hugely extended halo around the big fat one.

Good colour and good processing.

Best,
M&T

[batema]

Very nice indeed.

Mark.

[Andy01]

Fantastic image Paul - makes you feel like you're cruising through space on the bridge of the USS Enterprize.

All ahead warp factor two Mr. Sulu :)

[PRejto]

Musicians speak of "not writing the review before the concert." Me thinks you are a bit too hard on yourself! I enjoy the picture quite a lot. It is what it is; blame "nature" for the composition.

Peter

[Ryderscope]

I agree with Peter that you may be a little to hard on yourself with this one. There is a lot going on here that draws the eye. I think the reality with this field is that there is not a lot of colour contrast to play with except maybe for NGC 1365. The extended halos around the galaxies present very nicely. Overall I feel it makes for a very fine image.

[RickS]

Looks good to me too, Paul. I'd perhaps tweak the crop a little to get rid of the half a large star...

Cheers,
Rick.

[marc4darkskies]

I think this is fine image Paul, but I understand what you're saying. To give the image more zing doesn't need more data. I think you should just spend some time stretching the histogram with layer masking (so as not to lighten the sky too much).

See below my very quick fiddle in PS. It at least illustrates that you can make the stars sparkle a bit more and bring out more faint halo and galaxies. Of course you'd need to spend much more time doing this than I did, but you may be surprised.

[gregbradley]

I think its a fine image. As Marcus points out perhaps a little more vitality can be pumped into it.

But as you say some scenes don't work out as well as others. You can usually tell from the first download really if an image is going to be exciting or not.

Greg.

[rustigsmed]

still plenty of galaxies in there Paul and i think it is terrific, perhaps a mosaic? or extra panel to the left? ngc 1365 just doesn't seem to help the framing/balance?

Russ

[Slawomir]

Honestly, I do not know what could be improved in this image.

The galaxy in the bottom left has beautiful colours and crisp detail, stars are presented splendidly, and there is a wealth of treasures waiting to be discovered by a keen eye.

I like it very much Paul :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

I think it's great, though I am partial to galaxy clusters. Lots of interesting fuzzies in there.

[Atmos]

I am going to repeat the sentiment of others and say you're being too hard on yourself!

[Regulus]

I looked before I read and the result was: That's Beautiful!
Can I suggest coming back to the data in a week/fortnight/month and reprocess without reference to this image? If nothing else it will be an interesting experiment in how a different day and mood can influence our choices :-)
(I'd be interested to see the two results side by side too)
Meanwhile: this is a very nice photo. beautiful, in fact.

Trev

Trev

[Nicola]

How beatiful! :)

[Shiraz]

very attractive deep image Paul and I think that it is much better than you give it credit for.

It looks really good to me, but I know what you mean about the processing "yips" - some images never seem to "get there" and when one gets into that frame of mind, nothing much seems to help. Don't know why that happens, but I guess it could be an expectation issue.

[allan gould]

Paul, a really excellent image with great detail. It zings for me, but then I'm not in your league.
Allan

[madbadgalaxyman]

Hi Paul,

The lack of detail in the galaxies is intrinsic, rather than a reflection of your imaging and processing technique!

The galaxies in this cluster are nearly all S0s and Ellipticals, which makes them more compact than spirals (and therefore harder to image) , and the lack of ongoing OB star formation in nearly all of the cluster galaxies makes it a certainty that any intrinsic detail in the galaxies is going to be extremely low contrast. Indeed, even with giant telescopes, these galaxies for the most part show only very-subtle & very-low-contrast internal details, and nearly all of the cluster galaxies have few or no blue knots (= the signature of current star formation)

This situation is in marked contrast to that found in the Virgo Cluster, where star formation is still vigorous, at least in some parts of the cluster. But even in the Virgo Cluster, there is a growing population of galaxies that are deficient in star formation and interstellar gas, due to the ongoing effects of the cluster environment.

Best regards
Robert

In some ways, imaging of ellipticals and S0 galaxies is a different ballgame from imaging spirals;
there actually is evident detail in some of these "bland looking" galaxies, but the detail consists exclusively of very slight changes & gradients in the surface brightness over the face of a galaxy. And as I said there is a need for higher angular res., as these galaxies can be very compact.

[alpal]

Hi Paul,
I can't see why you're disappointed - the picture is great.
Ellipticals are difficult to represent in any other way &
I suppose they're not crowd pleasers like M83.

cheers
Allan

[Flugel88]

Paul i think what it lacks in Punch as you say it makes up for it in substance many interesting bits to look at i would be very happy with that.