The Tidal Tail of the SMC

[gregbradley]

After seeing Colin's SMC showing a tidal tail of stars I had not seen before I wanted to image the area to see what it takes to show it.

This image is just luminance and showed with some pushing. I am not showing it as a finished image as it was more an experiment but it lays the ground for a future image showing the area and with more exposure.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/166007076/large

Greg.

[Martin Pugh]

Look at that! How interesting. Nice one Greg.

Cheers
Martin

[Atmos]

That's fantastic Greg! I do want to revisit this again once I get my widefield mono setup setup. Just waiting for some rings and things so that I can mount everything securely.

Your FOV is pretty much perfect. I have wondered if there was a fainter tail that could be picked up in more than 2 hours with a DSLR.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Martin. Though its really Colin who started this project. I was wondering how well it would show up with a sensitive CCD. It probably needs 8 hours to show easily without excessive pushing.



I looked at your image to get the orientation right as its a bit of guess as to which part it was from.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Great rendition of a difficult target. Nice one. :thumbsup:

[topheart]

Awesome Greg!
It will be great to go super deep on this....

Cheers,
Tim

[Atmos]

Have you had a chance to try Ha yet Greg? I'm not entirely sure on my colour balance as I had a filter on the lens that night that caused some CA. The tidal tail looks quite blue which makes sense. Gravitational interaction causes star formation so there should be a bit of ionised Ha down in that region. I may have to look and see if I can find some of the 21cm line in that area.

[Placidus]

Bravo, Greg. Totally tight and convincing.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah great stuff Greg :thumbsup: good to see some different rarely revealed things too.

Sure it can be niiiice ...but fair suck, enough M8's and M20's already :eyepop: :rolleyes:

Of course... if I ever get this FSQ up and running... I am sure to shoot the pair too at some stage :lol:


Mike

[gregbradley]

Cheers Peter



I wanted to see if it was worth the effort before I commited valuable imaging time.



There is very little Ha in the SMC Colin. I have done Ha in the area before, there are patches of Ha in the SMC but its not like the LMC that way.



Cheers Mike.



Let me keep this quote when we see your M8/M20 FSQ shot eh?:rofl:

Greg.

[croweater]

Really interesting stuff. Hope some of you guys can take it further. Is it known what is causing such tidal effects? Cheers, Richard :)

[gregbradley]

Thanks Richard.

Its most likely an interaction with the LMC at some point.

Greg.

[DJT]

Nicely done Greg. Interesting stuff indeed. :thumbsup:

[graham.hobart]

gorgeous !!:thumbsup:

[willik]

Very interesting and not a easy image to take nice shot Greg
Martin

[gregbradley]

Thanks David. I'm encouraged to do a more full on exposure with colour.



Thanks Graham.



Cheers Martin.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Interesting! Nicely done Greg!

[gregbradley]

It is interesting isn't it. Thanks Marcus.

Greg.

[atalas]

Very cool Greg :thumbsup:should be a great project.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Louie. I'm sufficiently encouraged to invest the imaging time at my dark site.

Greg.

[RickS]

That's a cracker, Greg!

[gregbradley]

Cheers Rick.

Greg.

[clive milne]

Much win... well done Greg!

bonus kudos for doing it with modest equipment.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Clive. Yes my $125 "telescope" the Pentax 165mm!

Greg.

[Weltevreden SA]

Excellent image, especially given the equipment used.

The Bridge library seems to grow ever-thicker by the week. A very recent overview summary of the current state of MC tidal bridges is in the Feb 2017 Phys.Org (https://phys.org/news/2017-02-bridge-stars-dwarf-galaxies.html) article.

Would you consider extending your image into a survey along the entire Bridge? Might be cool what you pick up.

=Dana in S Africa

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the link Dana. I thought it would extend to the LMC. Next trip I'll do that.

Greg.

[Atmos]

If there is some clear skies after my 80mm rings arrive I'll give it a go with a Nikon 50mm F/1.8D. It's OKAY at F/2.8 but pretty sharp by F/4.

If not I could just use the D7200 but it certainly isn't as sensitive as a mono QHY163.

[gregbradley]

50mm may just make it or it may need a 35mm lens.

Greg.

[Shiraz]

great work Greg. That is a cool project - well worth some more time. cheers Ray

[gregbradley]

Thank Ray.

Greg.