NGC 4731 and friends

[codemonkey]

Not a very commonly imaged target--I'm not sure that it's been posted here before. Lots of little fuzzies in the background, which is always nice.

This one's fairly dim and I had planned to put a heap more integration time into it but I've had terrible wind and some hardware issues and now that I have a new camera, I'll probably move onto other targets when we next have clear skies (apparently not for the next week or so!).

This is 8.3hrs of data. The colour data is total junk. Blue in particular was bad, so I only have 3x240s blue frames in this, and even those frames were bad.

Overall the FWHM of the luminance wasn't terrible, with the resulting stack (prior to decon) coming in at 2.197" but I've had better recently.

Full res is available on Astrobin (http://www.astrobin.com/251937/).

[Placidus]

Very nicely done, Lee. Not seen that one before. Colours seem very similar to the APOD version. Interesting distortion to the spiral arms. And as you say, lots of faint fuzzies in the background.

Best,
Mike

[Atmos]

Considering the poor data, it doesn't look that poor :P You've done a good job, some nice colour in even the fainter background galaxies.

[AstroJason]

That is a cool little galaxy that I have never seen before.

[strongmanmike]

Great shot of a rather peculiar looking galaxy Lee, reminds me of a propeller . So many things that can happen to galaxies, so many possible shapes..can keep a galaxy imager busy for a lifetime..thanks for the look at this one :thumbsup:



:question:...charcoal?

Ok, ok, no fart jokes...

Wind was the bane of my imaging too until I get the scope inside a dome :thumbsup:

Mike

[codemonkey]

Cheers Mike. I think the APOD version is a bit more orange and mine a bit more magenta. Star colour is a bit different as well, though I'm not sure what's right as I've seen some other images go either way. Hard to tell with junk colour data. On the bright side, mine's a fir bit sharper than the APOD version which is always nice :D



Thanks Colin!



Thanks Jason! Yes, it doesn't seem that commonly imaged, which is odd because it's a pretty little thing.



LOL. I didn't even consider that interpretation when I wrote that.

Wind normally isn't a problem here, but recently 80% of the clear nights have coincided with really strong winds (e.g. 30km/hr according to the BOM). Couple that with a belt driven mount and a roll-off solution (i.e. gets wind protection from only one side) and it's not terribly conducive to imaging.

[gregbradley]

Good image Lee. An off the beaten track object, so that's fresh one. Nicely imaged.

I take it you imaged this a while ago before you got the ASI1600?

Greg.

[codemonkey]

Thanks Greg! Yep, this was captured with the Trius between the 22nd of May and the 7th of June (inclusive). All I've managed to get so far with the ASI1600 is bias & darks.

[Paul Haese]

That has now gone on the imaging list. Thanks Lee. That looks like one very faint galaxy. Very fine detail is showing through.

[codemonkey]

Looking forward to you showing me up in the near future Paul :D I think it's a hair brighter than NGC 300 for reference.

[RickS]

Nice job, Lee. I've only seen a couple of images of that object before and yours is a corker!

[alpal]

Excellent shot Lee.
There are hardly any published images of this one.
perhaps the best is the APOD?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100429.html

& it's not really much better.
You've done well.

cheers
Allan

[codemonkey]

Thanks Rick, appreciate it! :-)



Thanks Allan! Could just be processing, but I think mine's a bit sharper than the APOD, while the APOD has better star colour and is a bit smoother, though the latter might just be due to noise reduction, of which I did none.

I'm content with it, but it's a target that could do with a lot more data. I suspect we'll be seeing a much deeper, impressive image from Paul pretty soon :D

[gvanhau]

What a beautifull target, and nicely captured.
I pointed it up for a future capture.

Congrats.
Geert

[Ross G]

Great looking galaxy photo Lee.

Ross.

[codemonkey]

Thanks Geert. Given you have Chilean skies, I have high expectations and look forward to seeing your work on it :D



Thanks Ross