A mini LMC dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius

[strongmanmike]

NGC 6822 or Barnards Galaxy, is a dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius about 1.6 million light years away and about 7000 light years in diameter. It has plenty of HII and a few OIII emission nebulae regions and to me it resembles a mini LMC. The galaxy sits in a pretty dusty region of the sky not far from the main band of the Milky Way, with lots of intervening galactic cirrus dust, which covers the field.

It was nice and clear for most of the two nights with little or no Moon and I enjoyed above average seeing when collecting the Ha and OIII but sadly, it fell well below average for the Lum and was pretty poor for the RGB :doh: ...so I did some tricky blending to use the NB data to boost the details a little but I used no decon or deliberate sharpening in the processing.

NGC 6822 Barnard's Galaxy (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/166095848/original)

Stretched contrast enhanced (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/166096151/original) to see the Galactic Cirrus

Mike
err...did I mention the amount of beer.... :question: :drink:

[Ryderscope]

And what a fascinating object it is too. I agree that it looks like a mini version of the LMC and the red globules complete the picture. Good one.

[Placidus]

That's magnificent. The excellent optics and good seeing for the H-alpha data produced crispy crunchy clear super-bubbles, even without decon or sharpening. :eyepop:

[atalas]

Nice shot Mike.

[troypiggo]

Amazing to see that level of Ha detail in other galaxies other than pink dots. Nice!

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Rod



Cheers Mike, ah well as you know all too well, we take what conditions we get, some you win some you lose :)



Thnaks Louie



I agree Troy, seeing details in other galaxies always feels awesome, the super bubble here is so cool :thumbsup:

Mike

[markas]

Splendid image!

You have caught the Ha regions amazingly well.

Mark

[gregbradley]

That's a terrific image Mike. A rarely imaged object and done very deeply.
Some of those Ha blobs look like LMC blobs.

Greg.

[Retrograde]

Looks fabulous Mike!

[RickS]

Another great result, Mikey :thumbsup: Looks very much like the mini-me version of the LMC :)

[Atmos]

I tried this about a year ago with a 5" and quite scant data... Yours has really done it justice! There is a lot of dust in the background which shows up nicely in luminance :)

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
that's an amazing result for such a dim target -
especially the Ha areas popping so well.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Mark, it's a little boring without'em, so I thought a bit of Ha and OIII would lift'em :)



Cheers Greg, yes it really does look like a mini LMC :)



Thanks Pete



Thanks Rick, yep, I agree



On ya Col but with NGC 6822 sitting at 1.6 million light years, the dust is definitely in the foreground ;)



Thanks a lot Allan :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Shame about your seeing but a compelling result nonetheless for this underrated object. Vibrant colour and the HII shows up nicely. I'll have to finish my version one day!!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers 99 Acres Marcus :thumbsup: (is that like Bradman's 99.94 batting average...ie it will always not quite be 100?)

Actually, if I were patient :rolleyes: I would have waited and grabbed some different and more Lum when the seeing is better...may still do this yet, as I think it could be deeper (3hrs isn't much) and there is more resolution into stars possible within the galaxy...?

Mike

[Stevec35]

Still looks pretty good to me Mike. My few attempts at imaging this thing have turned out pretty ordinary.

Cheers

Steve

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Steve, I might grab some more and particularly better Lum if the conditions allow...aaaand I don't just move on :)

Mike

[topheart]

Well done Mike!!
I have always found this object to be very difficult to capture well. You obviously haven't had too hard a time getting it done - very nice!!
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Tim, because the seeing was good during their capture the HII features are reasonably detailed but if my setup was a little more automated I would likely collect some more and better Lum as I recon there is some stella resolution missing due to the much poorer seeing while capturing the Lum...:sadeyes:...thing is I get bored pretty easily :whistle: :lol:

Mike

[DJT]

Tried this recently,no joy. This is pretty darned good!

Well done for not harming those stars in processing. Given you didn't do any Decon and the lum wasn't great shakes it still excellent.

:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

looks like an opal gemstone when i squint

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dave, Coober Pedy would have dark skies too :D

Mike

[Tony_]

Magnificent image Mike!

I don't know why this isn't imaged more often - it is a great object. I like it more than a lot of the common objects - a mini LMC with multiple Ha regions and other nebulosity. I've done it once but even your subs are probably better than my finished image.

Tony.

[strongmanmike]

Hi Tony, yeah I agree mate, it does deserve more attention from imagers...M8 is just sooooo attractive though, like a magnet :lol:

Mike
who does love M8 too :P

[Camelopardalis]

This has been on my hit list for ages but I've always succumbed to the allure of its neighbours...but this is inspirational :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

http://www.astrobin.com/full/258077/B/

Not even remotely as clean as yours, nor as detailed BUT where is all that dust ;)

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dunk :thumbsup:



Oh it's there Col, but had I stretched it more to reveal it better, my image would have been all noisy and washed out too ;) :lol: that's a wider field and upside down compared to mine, if you register them you can see all the same dust in mine too, just not as noisy ;)...we both needed more exposure.

:thumbsup: