NGC 300 and her stellar nurseries

[strongmanmike]

Two good nights with the usual eating, drinking and singing (remember to watch The Feed on SBS Mon 3 Oct 7:30 :P), even if one was cut short by some early morning cloud and the other by low battery power :rolleyes: Taking the week off work has already paid dirt :D

NGC 300 really is a beautiful galaxy but can seem rather plain looking with standard LRGB processing, so I have used 2hrs of Halpha (Magenta Red patches) and 1 hr of OIII (Teal Green patches) to enhance and highlight the extensive star forming regions across the galaxy, there are just so many, they are pock marked right along the arms :eyepop:. Funny how the big star birth areas are in closer to the core.

Seeing was "ok" but not great, like it has been lately...but lot's of background galaxies still :party:

NGC 300 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/164174831/original) (Full Frame)

Some distant galaxies around NGC 300 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/164175264/original)

Cheers

Mike

[stevous67]

That is a beautiful rendition, very enjoyable to sift through.

Good one Pavarotti!

Steve :thumbsup:

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
it's a great picture & you've gone very deep to get all those galaxies.
I'm glad you were able to pick up so much with the Ha filter.

cheers
Allan

[h0ughy]

:D :help: :thumbsup: all i see are some smudges and glittery bits:astron: :stargaze: :cheers: . in awe as per usual!!

[Placidus]

Awesome! Trish and I just spent something like half an hour floating around in there. Adding not just the Ha but adding the OIII as teal certainly worked. The effect is a bit like some of the more colourful and violent star-forming regions in the LMC.

We especially like the way you've brought out a great deal of detail and colour close to the nucleus.

You've also captured lots of interesting distant fellows.

Best,
Mike

[Andy01]

Stunning Mike, great detail, colour & clever use of the NB blended with the RGB.
Should be the next IIS photo of the month I reckon! :thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Another ripper Mike! Adding Ha is often done, but adding the OIII is an interesting technique which you don't usually see.
Geoff

[Atmos]

Very nice Mike, love it! So many tiny galaxies in the background! Even better seeing some galaxies bleeding through the spiral arms. The full frame was a pleasure to look around.

[marc4darkskies]

Gorgeous Mike! :thumbsup: A deep and rich field with some great detail and the colours looks good ... although you might want to mitigate the slight salmon hue in the HII regions.

Cheers, Marcus

[dylan_odonnell]

Stunning work as usual Mike! Great use of the bands to add to the colour palette.

[strongmanmike]

Grazie Sinor Mohr :)



Cheers Alan, more Ha and OIII could be taken for sure (in fact all filters), however I was just looking for a slight enhancement, just to give some life to the galaxy, at only 7 Million light years there is little red-shift in the emission lines and I have 6nm filters, so always worth grabbing some to add to the mixing pot :)



Smudges are my specialty...particularly dwarf smudges :D :lol:



Thanks Mike, we are definitely in this game for the similar reasons...to have fun and enjoy ourselves, always great to read your feedback :thumbsup:



Cheers Andy :thumbsup:...oh I am pretty sure that van Gogh will be up there for a few months yet :lol:



Thanks Geoff, with such a close galaxy grabbing some emission line data is always worth it.



Yeah I like seeing or identifying distant galaxies shining through the foreground galaxy too, always seems so improbable :)



Thanks Dylan, had to do something to bring this largely blue galaxy to life :)

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Marcus :thumbsup: I did fiddle with the HII regions a bit trying to settle on something I liked, however the OIII-Ha mix seems to really change the colour hues, even between different patches across the galaxy, compared to just using Ha data only, which is the usual approach...so I am claiming physics is on my side this time ;)...btw I found decon was not effective on this galaxy so I didn't use any :D :lol:

Mike

[atalas]

Looks very well resolved as well Mike:thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

A ripper image Mike. I like this galaxy too. Its very photogenic.

Greg.

[RickS]

That's great, Mike! The Ha/Oiii adds a lot of interest and detail. It would be interesting to see in pure bi-colour narrowband too. I did that with M33 a while back and thought it looked pretty cool... like seeing the skeleton of the galaxy.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Stevec35]

Nothing much to say Mike except that's an excellent NGC 300 IMHO. It's certainly a more attrative object than NGC 1291.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Yeah well at only 6 Million light years you can get a bit of detail in this baby Louie :thumbsup:



Cheers Greg, I agree although I have found that often this galaxy can look fairly monochrome, hence the wacky NB twist :P



Yes, I remember your all NB M33, t'was a cracker mate, Mike and Trish did a real deep HII shot of NGC300 last year too.



Thanks Steve, glad you liked it, I haven't imaged this galaxy since hitting it with my ED80 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55286492/original) back in 2004 from Googong...I think my latest image is an improvement :D

Mike

[troypiggo]

Lovely as usual. Agree the OIII adds something to it as well. Heaps of stuff to look around in the background, too.

[Adso]

Incredible photo!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers guys :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

+1 Very cool. Beautifully resolved and sharp. It's got everything. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Marc

[topheart]

Beautiful!
Good on you Mike!
Regards,
Tim

[Steve Pattie]

That's a terrific shot. I remember seeing this in my 17.5" 30 years ago and I noted in my notes that it showed mottling across its surface. Now I can see why I saw that.

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Timbo :D



Yes I agree, always good when you can see stuff in the eyepiece that also appears in photos, even if only in B&W :) I recall using a goto 24" F3.3 (?) for a few hours at SPSP a couple of years ago and with most objects I could see much of what showed up in images I had taken of each object over the years with a 6" or 12" scope but just in B&W.

Mike

[renormalised]

Long time, no see :) Great shot, as per usual.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Carl, where you been at?

Mike

[RobF]

Really, REALLY enjoyed this one Mike. Agree NGC300 can be a bit bland looking in normal LRGB. The Ha and OIII have really added punch, without looking like the makeup has been overdone :D

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rob, actually I don't mind the overdone make up look when NB data is added to a galaxy image, after all it is purposely done to "enhance" something that is real about the galaxy and there is something kinda cool about being able to clearly recognise the star forming regions within another galaxy :)

Mike

[cometcatcher]

Wonderfully enjoyable image to look at Mike. One can get lost in there.

I'm shooting it for the first time tonight through your finderscope. :P

[Fabiomax]

Just great, Mike. This can be observed for hours finding ever new objects. You have tried to identify them with the catalogs of the NED and SIMBAD? Reference Photo!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[strongmanmike]

Aaaah Kevin, come'oooon, you have done a fine job mate! Much better than any finderscope could do. I love your observatory :thumbsup:



No I haven't done any catalogue confirmation Fabiomax but as you say might be a worthwhile activity? :)

Mike

[Fabiomax]

In the pictures of this level is always interesting to try something ... maybe you find something unexpected!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[strongmanmike]

Yeees..maybe like a dwarf spheroidal gaaalaaaxyyy.....:rofl:sorry... :help:

[gaa_ian]

Great image Mike, I was just looking for this Galaxy last night while trying out one of the new Go-To's !

[TR]

Nice field Mike.

[strongmanmike]

Nice, Sculptor is well placed for evening viewing at the moment :thumbsup:



Cheers Terry, the contrast between the big galaxy and all the little distant background galaxies is quite strong in this field.

Mike

[Shiraz]

Well that sure looks different! I like the normal wishy-washy look of this galaxy, but your approach has given a new perspective on the structure and is visually hi-impact as well. very interesting and impressive result.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Ray, well that was my intention, so I'm glad you appreciated my approach, gotta keep things interesting :thumbsup:

Mike