Antennae Galaxies

[richardo]

Hi all,
just finishing off another image that has been waiting for some colour.
Very interesting object this one and try to get to it every year.
Was happy with the amount of detail I picked up with the lum channel.
Gradients were an issue, as the Milky Way is hanging over head.
Here's a link to my front page if you'd like to take a look.
Warning, around 400kbs for those with dial up.
http://www.baytop-observatory.com/

The 5th spike still plauges me, but I'm just going to settle back till the solution pops into my head..... if ever. :)

Hope the weather is being a bit kinder to you guys on the east coast.
Fires, rain, storms.... mmmm Huey's giving out heaps!
Could be the Comet, the bringer of change.
Hang tight!!

Cheers for now:thumbsup:
Rich

[Ric]

Hi Rich, thats a very nice image. It well resolved and the colours are very natural looking.
You are right it is a very interesting object, it reminds me of a large insect looking back at us.

Great stuff

[FOOTPRINT]

Hi Ric,
Very nice pictures, Its great to see what a big scope can do, I dident note which Camera you were using, was it the DSI-2.

cheers......Jim

[Dennis]

Beautiful image of one of my favourite objects. Very nicely processed too.

Cheers

Dennis

[atalas]

Very nice work Rich ! I really love the texture in this shot.

[rogerg]

Nice images.

It was only on the weekend just gone that I was looking at NGC4038 through a 15" Obsession from a dark sky. The view visually looked remarkably similar to your photograph. Good to see a photo to compare, I hadn't got around to hunting one down.

:thumbsup:

[EzyStyles]

arh rich, another fantastic image from you as always :) great stuff.

[richardo]

Thanks to Ric, Jim, Dennis, Louie and Roger for the nice comments and
your observations with this Galaxy twister affair!

Interesting that one galaxy has almost stripped the other of components as can be seen by the older stars and matter (brownie yellow) which seems to be pooring into the core. While there's extreme new formation/ star birth occuring in the blue areas.
Cool but wouldn't want to be living there!!

Jim, the ccd's an SXHX916 mono with astronomik Clr RGB filters. Details are on the page.

I think I've tracked my 5th spike down now. After much brain storming with a buddy in the states.
So hopefully I'll be symetrical... more pleasing to the human brain.

Cheers for now
Rich

[skeltz]

AH yes another great image RICO ...and yes the 5th spike has been found i hear....great work sherlock(rich) and holmes (alan).......jolly good show

[gaa_ian]

A very detailed & visually pleasing shot, I was lucky enough to see this through the 25" Obsession at IISAC, very nice indeed !

[richardo]

Cheers for the comments Eric, Roberto and Ian.

Ian, bet that would have been a great treat to look at objects through such a large aperture... seeing them in real time, using the light gathering of such a scope. :eyepop:

Thanks Rob, yeah, finally the 5th element..... aaahhh, the 5th spike I meant, has been located.... almost sad to see it go... a good talking point though,
"Ah yes, this is a specially built system that has a secret winged secondary holder.... nah mate, can't tell you how it's built.... it's even a secret to me!" :lol:
On ya chappies for the nice comments !
Cheers
Rich:D