Whale Galaxy

[topheart]

Hi All,

After recently swimming with a Dolphin, I thought I should try and harpoon a whale.....

https://savannahskies.smugmug.com/Galaxyies/i-hLnwR4Q/A

LRHaGB image taken with the 0.5M Classical Cassegrain + STX16803 with AOX guiding on a ParamountME2 at Savannah Skies.

I still haven't totally sorted out this imaging system completely after having all sorts of software issues with drivers etc.

Thanks,
Tim

[Mickoid]

Fantastic, nicely processed and I love the colours. :thumbsup:

[Martin Pugh]

Excellent result Tim.

I also checked out Savannah Skies: looks like a great spot. Are the 4 domes privately owned?

Cheers
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Lovely result Tim and given it only makes 40deg above your northern horizon at the meridian, you still managed to reveal plenty of detail. Shows the benefit of having your observatory at 17deg South, brings so many northern objects into genuine imaging view while still having good access to our.. faaaar superior southern gems :D :thumbsup:

Mike

[RickS]

Lovely colour and detail, Tim! Shame you couldn't include NGC4656. I assume your FOV was too small?

[Placidus]

Superb rendition of NGC 4631. Beautiful colour, which I guess is showing there is strong interaction with its companion.

[alpal]

Hi Tim,
that looks great - so much detail.
I need to check it tonight on my monitor at home.
It maybe a bit over saturated & the background looks too dark on this laptop monitor. ( it's as black as coal )

cheers
Allan

[Retrograde]

Superb - those H II regions really pop!

[topheart]

Thanks very much Michael!



Hi Martin,
Thanks very much. I own 2 of the 4 four domes, the other two domes and the roll-off roof observatories at our site are owned by my colleague, Joe Brimacombe: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/

Joe and I share the facility and pop out there to tweak and maintain everything ourselves.
Cheers,
Tim



Thanks very much Mike....yeah, it is great being able to poke a fair way up north and steal from the northern hemisphere and as well as poke down south when things rotate high enough up around the southern celestial pole....I agree about the southern gems :).
Cheers,
Tim




Thanks Rick - I would need a mosaic with my small field of view with this imaging setup or I can use the BRC250 for the hockey stick + whale combo....I have taken a bit of data on the combo with that, but I don't have a complete data set yet.



Thanks M+T. Yes the object is very photogenic and I guess it stems form the pull in the middle of the whale from the nearby large galaxy...??
Cheers,
Tim



Thanks Allan!



Thanks Pete....yes I was happy with the Ha effect...I just added it into the red channel....

Cheers,
Tim

[alpal]

Hi Tim,
I just checked it at home.
It's OK - the background is just right.
It's amazing how monitors can be so different.

cheers
Allan

[topheart]

Thanks very much Allan - Yep, I've been badly fooled by a non standard monitor before......
Cheers,
Tim

[alpal]

Yes Tim,
it's the old gray-scale problem.
Most people have their monitors too dark to see anything but black on the top line:
http://piezography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/256grays-crop.jpg

I sometimes adjust for that by using 25 as my lowest black level.

cheers
Allan

[marc4darkskies]

Excellent result Tim! :thumbsup: Nice work!

[topheart]

Thanks Marcus!
Cheers,
Tim

[markas]

Intense! Great image Tim.

Mark

[topheart]

Thanks very much Mark,
I guess intense is what is happening to the galaxy with the gravitational pulls....!!
Cheers,
Tim

[SimmoW]

That's like an opal gem! Nice one

[cometcatcher]

That's a beauty Tim. I might have to get out the chainsaw for that one. ;)

[Paul Haese]

Nice going Tim. It's an odd looking galaxy for sure and does look like a whale. The detailing looks pretty nice and I really like your colouring. Lovely work. Just wish the resolution was larger to go looking into this galaxy.

[topheart]

Thanks Simon -- yes, I see opal colours too....



Thanks Kevin....go for it....cut out every pesky tree, let the sky flood over you!!
Cheers,
Tim



Thanks very much Paul. Yes, I will have to find a way to upload files to a higher resolution than Smugmug is letting me currently....I haven't been able to sort it out so far.
Cheers,
Tim

[Octane]

One of the most aptly-named objects out there!

Beautiful image, Tim. :)

H

[topheart]

Thanks H!!
Cheers,
Tim