Ngc3621

[Paul Haese]

This galaxy and the field that surrounds it are jammed packed full of stars and galaxies. I think I counted around 35 or so background galaxies with a few spectacular looking ones close by to the main attraction.

NGC3621 is considered to be a field spiral galaxy which means it is not gravitationally attracted to any other galaxies close by. It is alone in the field. The active nucleus is considered to be a Seyfert 2 with a supermassive black hole of about 3 million solar masses.

I captured about 35 hours of data with about 17 hours of luminance and nearly 3 hours in each colour. I also captured Ha data too but there are only a few pockets of gas which were affected by this data.

Seeing was average with most subs being around 2.3-2.5". There was a few nights where the seeing actually dropped down quite low to 1.6" FWHM.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC3621.html) for the larger resolution image.

[Placidus]

A truly wonderful image, Paul.

We think we can see very faint but clear spiral arms extending out to at least twice the obvious diameter of the galaxy.

Exquisite colour. Lots of sharp detail: the nights of good seeing have won.

Best,
MnT

[Paul Haese]

Thanks MnT. You are right the arms extend out a long way. I can see them clearly on my screen but maybe that is set a little too bright. They were quite faint and I had to get a lot of hours on the luminance to bring them out. A larger scope would easily show them without doing too many hours. The surrounding star field does not help either. It's a really busy area with regard to stars.

[niharika]

Very nice Paul 👍, Well done.

[gregbradley]

That's a sensational image Paul and the best 3621 I've seen.
A really impressive image.

Greg.

[DaveNZ]

Great image Paul. Lots of nice detail in NGC3621 especially in the central region.

FWHM 1.6" - I dont get seeing like that too often. Especially before midnight.

Dave

[willik]

Very nice image Paul you can see the spiral arms coming out from the
Galaxy and the colour contrast looks great.
Martin

[atalas]

Very nice Paul :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Another fine shot. Lovely colours and details. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Nice work on the faint stuff, Paul. Core detail is great too.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.:)



Thanks Greg, lots of integration made it easier to process.



Thanks Dave, during the drought years I was getting seeing down regularly around 1.3" with some nights around 0.7", but those were fewer. There appears to be drought coming again so I might actually get some nights of excellent seeing again.

[LewisM]

Yeah....

Yeah....

And....

Yeah....

Sublime.