Hickson Compact Group 68

[RickS]

Captured at SRO, 8-24 June, 2015

Objects in image include:
NGC5350, NGC5353, NGC5354, NGC5355, NGC5358, PGC49480/UGC8841

Scope: Ceravolo C300 @ f/9 = 2720mm FL
Mount: AP1100
Camera: FLI PL16803
Filters: Astrodon Gen II
Guiding: Lodestar II / Tak guide scope
Image scale: 0.68 arcsec/pixel
Exposures: 22x600s R, 22x600s G, 18x600s B, 29x600s L (~15 hours)
Processing: PixInsight 1.8

Acquisition credit: John Kasianowicz, Daniele Malleo, Leonardo Orazi, Rob Pfile, Rick Stevenson and Jerry Yesavage.
Processing credit: Rick Stevenson

Full field in high res: http://www.astrobin.com/249148/

Some of the star shapes aren't great. We were having collimation problems at the time.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Rick.

[strongmanmike]

Another great shot there Rick :thumbsup: That shiny bronze star looks awesome and really contrasts with the colourful spiral, then you look over to the left and there's that cool blue spiral that looks like it is from a comic book...nice!

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Rick,
What a beautiful picture.
there are so many other galaxies as well.
It made me look at this one too:
http://afesan.es/Deepspace/Hickson%2068,NGC%205371,PGC%2049480 %20%28Canes%20Venatici%29.jpg


cheers
Allan

[RickS]

Thanks, Mike! It is a very cool grouping. The mag 6.5 star in the middle was a real processing challenge.



Thanks, Allan. There are a few nice images of HCG68 around including that one. I was kicking myself that we didn't manage to get NGC5371 in our field too.

[Placidus]

Beautiful and fascinating, Rick.

What do you think causes the apparent sharp almost concave edge just below the two main ellipticals?

[Paul Haese]

Nice work Rick. Composition is very effective, colour is great, superb detail.

[troypiggo]

Lovely image. Agree with the other comments - the blue galaxy top left is a nice contrast.

[RickS]

Thanks, Mike. The sharp edge of the shared halo around the interacting galaxies, NGC5353 and NGC5354, is a bit of a mystery. I have seen it in several other images so I'm pretty sure it is real but I can't find any explanation in the literature.

Both galaxies are normally classified as S0. NGC5354 has a minor axis dust lane which I can just make out. There's a paper which suggests it should be classified as a dustlane ETG.

I'll PM madbadgalaxyman and see if he is willing to comment...



Thanks very much. Paul.

[RickS]

Thanks, Troy! Hope to see you up at Astrofest.

[Retrograde]

Lovely detail Rick.
Great to see images like these of distant targets that would have been purely the domain of professionals not so long ago :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Really outstanding space image Rick! IMO it just looks very...what's the right term?...professional! :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Very nice Rick! There is a lot going on in that field, there is some detail on even some of the fainter galaxies in the area which is lovely :)

[rustigsmed]

wow super cool and interesting field! thanks for sharing

[gregbradley]

A fantastic image Rick and expertly processed.

Greg.

[RickS]

Thanks, Pete!



Thanks, Suavi :) It's like the duck on the water. From the top it looks serene and effortless. Underneath it's paddling like crazy ;)



Ta, Colin. Picking an interesting FOV is half the battle.



Thanks, Russ.



Thank you, Greg.

[codemonkey]

Nice work, Rick. Well processed and a really interesting field. Like Mike, that shape in the two main ellipticals really jumped out... that's very odd, I've never seen anything like that before.

[ozstronomer]

Beautiful image Rick, with an amazing FOV

Well done :thumbsup:

[billdan]

Great image Rick, well framed, just love that majestic star with its long spikes, and the blue galaxy just sets up the image perfectly.

Cheers
Bill

[RickS]

Thanks, Lee. You'd think that someone would have written a paper about the halo but I haven't been able to find one.



Thanks, Geoff!



Thanks, Bill. That star was both a blessing and a curse :)

[multiweb]

Looks great. That face on spiral makes the shot. :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Beautiful image Rick! Galaxy cluster images are always very thought provoking and compelling. This is a beauty. Great colours and detail too (of course)!

Cheers, Marcus

[RickS]

Thanks Marc & Marcus!

[Shiraz]

Really beautiful image Rick - very interesting contrast in the primary objects and busy background field.

[RickS]

Thanks very much, Ray!

[Ross G]

A great looking galaxy photo Rick.

Beautiful colours and detail.

Love the composition.

Ross.

[RickS]

And thanks, Ross!