Two distant galaxies dancing in Indus

[strongmanmike]

At over 200 million light years, NGC 6935 & 6937 are two small galaxies in Indus with nicely contrasting morphology. The two galaxies are indeed close to each other, with NGC 6935, the tightly wound spiral with prominent blue ring of star formation, being the closest of the pair at about 209 Million light years, while the more open blue spiral NGC 6937, sporting a vague bar, is slightly farther away at 220 million light years.

Of course at these sort of distances both appear only 2 arc min in angular size, so this was another test of my site, requiring good seeing to do them any justice.

I collected the data last Thurs, Fri and Sun nights, over New Moon (with the usual beer drinking :drink: visual observing...and singing :face:), and luckily Friday night was cooperative in the seeing department, providing above average to rather good seeing most of the night :2thumbs:...so I took the bulk of the 10hrs Luminance on this night.

The full frame includes literally hundreds of background galaxies and a couple of galaxy clusters.. all at clearly great distances :eyepop: ...so it is worth having a look at the full frame full resolution version :thumbsup:

NGC 6935 / 6937 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165885214/original)

Full Frame Full Resolution (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/165884690/original) (have a swim :thumbsup:)

Cheers

Mike

[Slawomir]

I thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the full frame resolution image Mike - I have not seen these two beautiful gems before :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Two beautiful, tiny, and very unusual gems shown in great detail. Lovely and enticing.

We counted at least sixty galaxies with clear form and shape in the background.

[RickS]

Very cool, Mike. I've never seen an image of those guys before either.

[gregbradley]

Great to see some new objects being imaged. Nice one and the background galaxies give a good feel for the vastness of the universe. 16hours - one of your longest images.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Very nice Mike, particularly like the one to the lower right. An interesting internal structure with a bland and boring outer. It looks like something has happened at some point in its recent start to cause a "localised"/central star formation.

[atalas]

So many clear nights and good seeing no!frustrating It is Mike, and especially If your imaging tiny buggers like these....

Still,I must say this field is wonderful with good detail in the little ones.....despite the obvious effect the seeing had on the stars.

I especially like where you've arrived with your colour balance of late....always very attractive.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[xelasnave]

Wonderful but where is the sound track.
Alex

[marc4darkskies]

Oh ... My ... God!!! Thought it would never happen! :lol:

Looks better at 60% though! :P ;):rofl: (kidding)

Seriously ... lovely shot Mike! :thumbsup: Love those fields with lots of faint fuzzies! Sets the imagination going for sure! Nice work!

PS: Lots of clear nights here but seeing has been absolute crap!

[Andy01]

You need to clean your sensor Mike, it's got feint fuzzy bits all over it :lol:
Great image - love the depth, gives one a sense of the vastness of space :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Glad to hear Suaviman, yes there are just so many things to image up there besides the dirty dozen...it's quite rewarding hitting seldom imaged targets, kinda makes the long hours alone out under the stars more interesting for an old dog like me :)



Cheers guys, thought you'd like it...faint fuzzies are your panacea :thumbsup: (never know who is writing the reply, Mike or Trish :question:)



Yeah, too small for most of us mere mortals to bother I'd suspect :lol:



Cheers Greg, actually, 16hrs is about my average length actually, usually about 3 nights to achieve...then I tend to get bored :whistle: :zzz2::lol:



Cheers Col and yes I think you may be right about NGC 6935 too



Ha ha yeah ain't that the case Louie :rolleyes: :scared: :thumbsup:...re the stars, likely a few factors going on here, yes the seeing was a factor, sure, but also I actually like my stars to be a tiny bit soft, seem more real to me like that :shrug: (I could easily sharpen them) so I don't decon my stars (shrink them only slightly in Astroart sometimes though), plus since the galaxies are so small and detailed this further creates the illusion that the stars are big too, also in a small FOV stars always appear bigger. One way to reduce this last factor is to post at 50-60% of course...but hey, then Marcus would just hammer me :eyepop::lol:



Here ya go (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzhZx7LRig)Alex :P



:lol:.....Oi! :shrug: I always post at least a crop at 100% or sometimes more! If I think the scene is worth it I will post the full frame full res version as an option...as here :thumbsup:

..oh.. and you should move....



Cheers Andy, literally 100o's of scenes like this one await up there :thumbsup:

Thanks everyone

Mike

[vlazg]

Very nice Mike, i really enjoy the images where every timeyou look, you see more.
I'll have to get a longer focal length . :P

[LewisM]

Definitely the best image I have seen of these taken near a quarry in the ACT :P :)

[xelasnave]

Mike I meant you singing.
Again extremely impressive effort way beyond anything I could comptemplate.
Looking at your results makes me feel the same as when I hear a good guitarist...take the axe to my stuff and just enjoy the efforts of a master.
Best wishes
Alex

[Geoff45]

Ripper Mike! This is definitely one that needed good seeing. Good resolution.
Geoff

[cometcatcher]

Nice ones Mike! Heck, I don't even know where Indus is....

[traveller]

Nice colours, deep and sharp. Well done Mike.
Bo

[strongmanmike]

I agree George, something about galaxy fields, always make you wonder...:thumbsup:



..?..nup, I don't get it ...:question: I think they have been imaged a few times from several quarries around here, they call them CQP (Canberra's Quarry Pair) :shrug:...you gotta get out more Lewis :rolleyes: :lol:



Ah sorry Alex...I have some recordings on my phone, I'll see if I can upload'em ...mostly done half tanked from inside the observatory though....:P



Indeed Geoff, the first night seeing was largely crap, hence the slightly bloated stars pointed out by Big Louie (I still had to use some of the better subs though) but the second night was quite good, like chalk and cheese :)....couldn't see any decon artefacts though huh? Could'ya? ;) :lol:



Cheers Kev, it is Indus area of the sky mate :P...



Glad you liked it Bo :thumbsup:

[SimmoW]

Yes a lovely swimming exercise with this image Mike!

I have to mention my 'religious' experience last weekend. First full decent test of my 10 inch scope. At 3 in the morning at sub zero Heathcote, I was hunting around the planetarium for good targets. Fell across the Fornax region, so started aiming for various areas there. No specific target searches, just took a 20sec image (with the sensitive A7s), plate solved and peered. And peered! I ended up taking an hour to compose my shot and loved every freaking second of it! Enthralling, mystical, searching for those incredibly massive and populous galaxies. I could feel myself succumbing to the aperture and focal length bug! No.....dont order the RC Simon!!!! Well not yet anyway.

[strongmanmike]

Ah ha! Good for you Simon!

Amen :prey: to that! ..the simple things are sometimes worth savouring and enjoying. Sometimes imagers can easily get lost in being determined to produce the perfect award winning image, or demonstrate they have the best equipment or take the ubberest deep shot ever etc... aaaand forget what it is they are actually doing...imaging celestial objects that most people only dream about or more often than not, are completely unaware of...

Do it, order the RC, you know you want to :thumbsup:

...long lonely nights under the stars is usual for me...have you tried drinking and singing...? :question: :lol:

Mike

[SimmoW]

Totally agree Mike, after experiencing that, I will certainly devote more time to just exploring our universe.

No drinking for me, bad for my general health. And singing? I'd scare the goats away!

[strongmanmike]

Hey, I make all the dogs in the distance bark, who cares...it's very cathartic :D

Mike

[Retrograde]

Lovely little galaxies & a beautiful field. :eyepop:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Pete :thumbsup: