November Deep Sky Imaging Challenge

[rogerg]

I remember stumbling upon this guy and saying to myself "Wow, that's a perfect face-on spiral galaxy! Why didn't I know about this before???"

I'd just love to see it in colour by some of you guy's.

I nominate NGC 1232; Mag: 9.8, Size: 7.4 x 6.5 (arc mins), Transits @ 00:51.

Like last month it's in Fornax (sorry if this isn't good for you! ... I can't leave Fornax at this time of year..). It's quite big and bright so hopefully suitable to most people. It looks like it has a second galaxy perhaps attached or distant? But I can't find an Id for it in TheSky.

I was torn between this and NGC 2442 (the meat hook) which is also spectacular but a little lower this time of year so thought I'd take the safer option (hopefully less trees nearer the zenith!).

Neither are my current style of object (mag 18 fiant little galaxies) but I don't think DSLR users would appreciate me choosing one of them :) And I'd love to see nice colour in this guy.

Attached is my shot from last year. I'm hoping to take another for this comp though.

:thumbsup:

Roger.

[Octane]

Roger,

Excellent choice in object.

It appears to be fairly large; hopefully it will be conducive to digital SLRs. If so, I'll give it a go next new Moon.

Regards,
Humayun

[rogerg]

I was hoping it would be friendly for DSLR users, would at least be interested to see what you do get, however big or small.

Roger.

[Ric]

Great choice Roger, I think Fornax is starting to come out of the trees now so I will be able to have a go at it. It should make a great image.

cheers

[Striker]

Nice choice Roger,

I am also interested too see how the DSLR's go with this galaxy.

[tornado33]

Yes good choice, as soon as moon goes I will go for it.
Scott

[EzyStyles]

I took this galaxy with the DSI II not long ago through the 8" F/4. 12 x 84 second. I don't have my scope anymore besides the ED80 so i wouldnt be able to give this ago with the DSLR.

[Lee]

Cool..... hopefully I'll have my DSI filters by new moon..... might be a tricky one to start the LRGB learning curve though, hang on - still on the L learning curve!

[Lee]

Starry Night Pro lists NGC 1232 as mag 15.3 angular size 54 arcseconds.... :shrug:

[rogerg]

:screwy: strange!

I hope/think I got the NGC number correct.....

Roger.

[Ric]

Now that will be a challenge :astron:

cheers

PS. I just looked it up and I have it listed as Mag 10.0 in Eridanus

[Lee]

Wikipedia agrees with you Roger....... don't know what Starry Night is referring to....
Actually - when zooming right in with SNP, they have referred to what I assume is NGC 1232A as NGC 1232 also - and this is picked up as the main galaxy in the wide field views.....
It gives NGC1232 as Mag 9.9 7.8 minutes diam - much better!

[rogerg]

Ahh, well that's interesting to have some info on 1232A... I can't find any info on it in TheSky6. Nice to know it's mag.. 15.3 sounds about right thinking back to my photo.

Roger.

[rat156]

OK, no colour, but this is my attempt...

Cheers
Stuart

[Lee]

What did you use for that??? Looks beautiful! Almost like an artists impression, not a photo..... Brilliant effort!

[rat156]

8" LX200GPS.
f5 with Optec reducer.
SBig ST-7XME.
60 mins luminance.

Cheers
Stuart

[rogerg]

That's an excellent photo Stuart! It looks like you have a very good pixel size there for the ST7 - must be about 1.5 arc sec/pixel? Much better than my barely 1 arc sec/pixel, resulting in a much sharper image than I can achieve.

Roger.

[strongmanmike]

I did this galaxy over two years ago with the 12" SCT and little MX716...maybe I do it again with the SXV-H9 and AP? :D

http://upload.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55271790/large


Mike

[rat156]

According to the Wodaski CCD calculator it's 1.85" per pixel, close to optimum. It's a nice FOV for the larger galaxies as well.

Cheers
Stuart

[Ric]

Hi Stuart, Thats a great image, the arms of the spiral are well resolved and detailed.
Is that a smaller galaxy off to the left as well?

cheers

[rogerg]

Hi all,

I used NGC 1232 as my first test of LRGB imaging. It's ok, but a bit ugly :) .. hot pixels and all that.

The viewing conditions have been shocking, high cloud and all that. So lots of exposure time but relatively little detial, but it's OK. Better than nothing!

The shot at my website is the same size but lower JPG compression so slightly better quality - hard to pick though.

http://www.rogergroom.com/rogergroom/esh_rog_item.jsp?Item=524

... I'm sure I had it looking better than this at some stage in the processing, but can't quite get the colours back there...

Roger.

[Ric]

Hi all, heres my image of NGC1232. I managed to image on time this time :D

The imaging was done in Alt/Az mode with the LX200R 12" and tracked with Star Atlas Pro. The camera was the the DSI II Pro and imaging software was Envisage in drizzle mode set at 1:1:0.8.
Lum = 50 x 30sec (25 minutes)
R = 1 x 30sec
G & B = 5 x 30 sec each (2.5 minutes)

Post processing was done with MaximDL which was just combining and small amount of colour tweaking.

This is definitely one of my best attempts at galaxies so far, I didn't burn out the core as usual:cool: .


cheers

[Lee]

Looks great Ric! Was it done at f/3.3? I've been itching to shoot this one, but haven't had a chance..... it will probably be my own little December/Jan challenge object!
I just got my colour filters too, so I'm really itching now!

[Ric]

Hi Lee, yep it was taken at f/3.3. Whoops I added all the other details and forgot that bit.

Cheers

[rogerg]

Nice shot Ric, great to be able to say it's your best, to be progressing with your galaxy imaging. It is sometimes difficult to not burn out the core of these galaxies, that's one of the critical things to learn the processing techniques to get the even brightness and yet still keep it looking "correct".

:thumbsup:

Roger.

[Ric]

Thanks Roger for the encouragement, its greatly appreciated.
For a while I was shying away from galaxies as I was getting frustrated with fuzzy blobs.
But as I learn more about processing and imaging techniques its not so daunting as before. Now I'm quite keen to image more galaxies as they are beautiful subjects to image.

cheers

[Garyh]

Nice shots Roger and Ric...I have had no luck with the weather up here, twice set up for it but that horrible smokey haze then fog comes to visit after sunset :-( blocking all but the brightest of stars...