Suggestions on galaxy cluster imaging

[Atmos]

With Snake Valley a fortnight away I have been trying to decide what I should put my time and effort into imaging. My thoughts at this stage are to put most of my time into a galaxy cluster somewhere which I suppose would push me towards Fornax. It is either that or a attempt NGC 300 in LRGB and maybe redo the Ha another time (or before then with 2x2 binning).
If the weather plays nice I am planning on getting close to the 15 hour mark, 1 hour RGB and the rest Lum.

So, opening the floor to suggestions as to a good region! My FOV is ~64x51'

Around Fornax is there is NGC 1068 and NGC 1365 both of which are embedded with MANY background fuzzies. NGC 300 has the benefit of being able to basically image from sun set to sun rise! Plus with ~3 hours of unbinned Ha on NGC 300 (http://www.astrobin.com/full/263382/0/) some 80 galaxies have shown so maybe that is the go?

Decision still undecided, NGC 300 seems like a good idea to put 2-3 nights into BUT I would love to hit a very galaxy dense region which puts me into the Fornax region and the distant galaxy supercluster! Don't get out to a dark location often enough (even though I own one!) so being setup for a couple of nights will hopefully yield some results.

[glend]

Personally i find the standard galaxy targets pretty boring and avoid going to the same thing again and again. Here are things that i have recently imaged or are on my list for the next few weeks: The Grus Quartet -completed that, the Skull Nebula, and the Tarantula will be higher down there but you would still need to start on it about 1:30am as it gets above 40 degrees. If your pulling all nighters then, the Witches Head, and Orions targets after 2am. They don't give you a lot of time, with astro dawn from about 4:30am now. Have fun.

[strongmanmike]

Try for the IC 1459 galaxy chain mate, nicely placed for this time of year and it's a seldom imaged but very cool chain of galaxies that runs across the Grus - Pisces Austrinus border. Incidentally, it is the most hit set of images at my web site, latest total image view count is approaching 35,000 :)

Mike

[SimmoW]

Looking forward to seeing you at the meet Colin.

We'll have LOTS of time to discuss stuff, COZ ITS GONNA BE CLOUDY!

Never insult the weather gods by making detailed imaging plans :P

[Atmos]

I have been meaning to redo the Skull Nebula, did a brief one last year. I still haven't imaged most of the regions so they're still new to me :D Having only started astrophotography about 12 months ago, I still have a lifetime worth of targets to track down at least once :P



I really couldn't find many images of this region, not outside of old plates and sky surveys anyway. Looks like a nice patch that I have no plans at all of ever imaging EVER, especially not in two weeks. Nope. Nope ;) (weather gods are always listening)



Looking forward to a whole weekend of cloud and rain where we won't be capturing a single photo that isn't emitted by the Earth itself ;)

[clive milne]

Mehh... Fornax has been done to death.
With the exception of a couple of interesting galaxies, the cluster is an unremarkable population of featureless ellipticals.

I would be looking at interacting galaxies in Pavo, Iridanus, Dorado.. or maybe even 1808 & 1792? (in Columba) <-- These two would be perfectly framed in a 1 degree field and have multiple layers of background PGC galaxies to make the composition interesting.. Best of all, they are (relatively) bright, have a peculiar morphology (they are both 'star burst' galaxies) and are rarely imaged by hammer-chewers...

Untouched, low hanging fruit with a bit of novelty... win - win.

best
~c

[Atmos]

Thanks Clive, will probably hit them in two months time when they rise a bit earlier (better positioned for a solid nights imaging :P). Couldn't find a whole lot of images on them so they're worth a shot :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Here (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/101494231/original) is my effort from way back in 08, your FOV is a bit smaller so you would have to decide on which 2/3 of the chain to go for, I would suggest framing IC 7421, 7418, 7418A, 5264 and IC1459 - should make a nice curved chain diagonally across your chip of 5 galaxies of differing morphologies :)

Good luck with what ever you end up...?... not seeing while planted beneath the clouds :question: :sadeyes:

Mike