The giant star Eta Arae and two distant galaxies

[strongmanmike]

As promised, some more galaxies in Ara... and these two small galaxies NGC 6221 and NGC 6215 hang majestically in the yellow-red glow of the giant K class star Eta Arae.

The dimensions of the bulk of these two galaxies are NGC 6221: 2.7' X 2' and NGC 6215: 1.5' X 1.3' however the image has revealed that both have faint extended halos that increase their sizes out to 5' X 3' and 2' X 2' respectively. NGC 6221 especially looks strange as there is what appears to be a clear spiral arm distortion/elongation (like it has been pulled out by something?) to the lower left but no obvious nearby galaxies that could be blamed..?

At 300 light years away, here is a bit about the star Eta Arae, this is from Wiki: The spectrum of this star matches a stellar classification of K5 III, indicating that, at an estimated age of seven billion years, it has reached the giant star stage of its evolution. With a mass nearly the same as the Sun, it has an outer envelope that has expanded to nearly 56 times the Sun's radius. The star is now spinning so slowly that it takes more than eleven years to complete a single rotation. Eta Arae is radiating energy into space at an effective temperature of 3,886 K, giving it the orange-hued glow of a K-type star. It has a 14th magnitude optical companion, located 25.7 arc seconds away.

This was another easy process, no darks, no gradient removal and no noise reduction were used and as has been the case for the 6 years of using this scope now, even at mag 3.7 and at the edge of the field, Eta Arae caused no spurious reflections or halos to deal with. This is a testament to the design of the fast Wynn corrector lens in this scope as well as the Astronomik Deep Sky filters and I did no special work on the star either, this is how it came out after my normal processing run :thumbsup: I did have a bit of fog around (which cut my night short) so that has probably accentuated the glow around the star a little? (which I don't mind the look of)....easy imaging...I like that :)

The seeing wasn't great for this image varying a bit over the single night of collection, with mostly below average conditions for my site, with occasional improved periods...gotta take the good with the bad I guess :)

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165721686/original)

Mike

[alpal]

Great result Mike,
I tried this 6 years ago with a DSLR &
it wan't a good result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24719437@N03/5891049441/in/photostream

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Alan, it's a bit different huh? :)

and yours is pretty good too, just needs flats? and maybe a bit of gradient work, that's all :thumbsup:

Mike

[cometcatcher]

That's a beauty Mike. :thumbsup:

And Allan, your DSLR shot isn't bad either. I thought this might be too hard a shot for me but now I might just tip toe over to Mike's finderscope..... Sshhhh, don't tell him. ;)

[LewisM]

Eh Michelangelo, I counted 4 GX in your lovely shot...not 2

[alpal]

Thanks Mike,
you make me want to try & re-process it.
I know a lot more now - I was only a beginner then.
At least you've shown what can be done with a big Newt. &
a CCD camera from a darker location.

cheers
Allan

[Marke]

I love this stuff Mike galaxies and more galaxies

[strongmanmike]

Hmmm? :mad2:

[strongmanmike]

Cool, always time for a reprocess :thumbsup:



I agree Mark, galaxies rule :D

Mike

[SimmoW]

I like this, like zooming into a distant galaxy as it passes near the star - which it is....

[IanP]

jaw dropping photo ...
:party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2: :party2:

[Joshua Bunn]

Very neat Mike, subtle processing, pleasing FOV and colours :2thumbs:

[Geoff45]

Another ripper Mike. I'm most impressed with the lack of internal reflections--something that often bugs me.
Geoff

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Simon



Soooo Ian...am I to interpret that my image made you jump for joy..? :question: :lol:...was it the star or the galaxies..?

Nice! :D

Cheers

Mike



Thanks Josh, glad you liked it mate, a simple shot really but kinda different :)

Mike

[topheart]

Well done Mike!

A majestic perspective created by the star and the galaxies - a good effect.
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Geoff, yes two things I have never had any issues with using this scope over the past 6 years are internal reflections/halos and finding a guide star, ie after framing the object there is always a suitable (off axis) guide star or two (or more), to chose from within 2 - 3 sec guide exposures without having to re frame :)

Mike
,

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Tim, yeah a simple scene, something different.

Mike

[Placidus]

Two interesting galaxies, well photographed. The lack of internal reflections is very helpful. Counted six faint fuzzies in the great distance despite being very close to the Milky Way.

[Slawomir]

Very pleasing image and off the beaten track :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers guys :thumbsup:

[Andy01]

A 3D image that suggests the scale of the universe is mind boggling, well done :D

[strongmanmike]

The old Near and Far effect :)

Mike

[atalas]

Your fast scope keeps surprising me of the detais It pulls out of tiny object Mike:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Not really, that's a common misconception, it's not the speed that counts with detail but the image scale (and seeing!!). The AG12+SXVRH694 provides 0.84"/pix that's almost the same as a Planewave CDK14 with 11002 or 16803 chip :thumbsup: the good thing is, it is fast so it pulls out the faint extended stuff even with the small pixels....just ask Paul H about this ;)

Mike

[RickS]

Very cool, Mike! Haven't seen that field before. Captured and processed with your usual panache :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

A tidy result Mike although the stars look a little bloated no doubt due to the indifferent seeing you had. Very good for one night's work though.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rick :thumbsup: and welcome baaaaaack :hi: :love:



Cheers Steve :thumbsup: Yeah, this was a kinda fill in image, you know wanna do something quick and easy but interesting, in less than ideal conditions. I went for this field to show two faint galaxies near a lovely bright orange giant star, in an attempt at a near-and-far composition..bit of fun and interest :) We take what we get and I also think I processed the stars to be nice and "bright" because I wanted them to shine a bit, like the giant star, rather than sharpen them too much to compensate for the seeing. So apart from the below average seeing this may be contributing to what you describe as bloat :question:

Cheers

Mike