Ngc 4731

[Geoff45]

PITA processing this one. Still not sure if it's the best I can dig out of the data. Taken at the last ASNSW star party in May.
More details here

https://www.astrobin.com/b9j9n0/
Larger res here

https://www.astrobin.com/full/b9j9n0/0/


Details
FOV 21' x 21'
Telescope and mount: Plane Wave 12.5" on AstroPhysics 900GTO
Camera: FLI Proline 16803
Exposure: 7 hours

Acquired with MaximDL, processed in PixInsight

[gregbradley]

That's an odd galaxy. It looks like some other galaxy has disrupted it.

Greg.

[Geoff45]

Its spiral arms have undergone distortion by gravitational interaction with NGC 4697, which is out of sight below the bottom of the frame

[cometcatcher]

Unusual galaxy. Lovely shot.

[codemonkey]

Nice one, Geoff. I imaged this one a few years ago because of it's interesting morphology but wasn't particularly happy with my image... it's a tough one and you've done a good job on it.

[Placidus]

That's the best galaxy photo we've seen in a very long time.

[strongmanmike]

Some warts but meah who cares :) A nice framing of an interesting galaxy pair Geoff. Love the simple "S" shaped spiral structure of 4731 :thumbsup:

Mike

[Geoff45]

Thanks Kevin.it is quite unusual and not often imaged. I can’t remember how I came across it.


Thanks Lee.

Thanks Mike and Trish. I’m sure you exaggerate about it being the “best” you’ve seen for a while, but I’ll happily take the compliment.


Thanks Mike. Can you be more explicit about the warts? Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Geoff

[strongmanmike]

Sure and only cause you have asked :shrug:...there are black rings/patches around the stars, I assume from some gradient removal/DBE and this has made the background blotchy yellow/black too, decon looks to have dotified some of the detail and diffraction spikes and the stars are elongated.

Still, an enjoyable view :thumbsup:

Mike

[Geoff45]

Thanks Mike. Once you see the black rings around the stars it's impossible to unsee them!

[multiweb]

Nice catch Geoff. Really twisted galaxy that one. :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

What a fascinating galaxy and wonderfully captured Geoff!
I have the same disease as Mike though, everything gives the appearance as having been isolated and sharpened from the background during processing. That's not to say that there is ascu sharpening outside of deconvolution though.

All in all its only minor and doesn't really detract from an interesting and great capture :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Nice capture of this galaxy. There are so many different shaped galaxies out there that are great to image. Nice colour to your image and the definition is great too.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Marc. I love those tidally deformed galaxies.


Thanks Colin. I think I’m going to have to be a bit more careful with my processing from now on! I think the reall problem was trying to get too much out of data that wasn’t quite there.



Thanks a lot Paul.