NGC 45 in Cetus

[strongmanmike]

Well after having plenty of fun with the FSQ-16803 wide field rig of late, it was time to switch over and zoom in with the AG12-694 combo...after exactly a year since the last one, I decided to hit a galaxy again, yaaay! :thumbsup:

This is NGC 45, a loose structured spiral galaxy 30 million light years away in Cetus, not imaged very often, very few examples can be found surprisingly but being so close to that bright star makes for a cool pairing and I was happy with how this came together in the end after two nights on its case.

Nice to be back in the higher resolution saddle again :)

Details are under the image

NGC 45 in Cetus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongman/48841661616/) (click on image and scroll around with your cursor)

To check out the full resolution image go HERE (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/169837039/original)

Mike

[h0ughy]

Looks like its eating galaxies

[strongmanmike]

..aaah wha? :shrug:

[h0ughy]

The little monster within it

[strongmanmike]

Ok...bit too cryptic for the dumb ex-strongman Dave..:question:

[h0ughy]

Sorry, was the first thing I thought of when I saw them. As borat would say, very nice ;)

[strongmanmike]

So, do you mean that you think the bright star looks like it is eating the galaxy?...:question:

[h0ughy]

Well like if a jellyfish ate a cigar, sorry weird analogy.

[Slawomir]

A splendid image Mike - I missed your higher magnification Galaxy images :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

A most remarkable image Mike. Clean and sharp, a serious starburst galaxy in fine detail, two others seen directly through it, dozens more in the background.

[alpal]

Nice one Mike,
you've actually got more detail in the core than Gendler's image:
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC45.html

Therefore you have stretched this image very well.
Your image has a more blue colour -
I wonder which is correct?
With your new filters - maybe it's you?



cheers
Allan

[codemonkey]

Great to see you doing some high res work again, Mike. Lovely field with some cool background galaxies too. Not sure I've seen this one before. Well done!

[Andy01]

Fascinating tour through Galaxy central there Mike - lots to see including a tiny one in front of the NGC 45's core at 10 O'Clock - super sharp too - well done! :)

[Paul Haese]

Nice galaxy shot Mike. The detail is very good for smallish apparent galaxy. A slightly odd looking galaxy though, no real core structure; the arms seem to just start from the centre. The foreground stars make for an interesting composition and there are plenty of background galaxies to hunt around for in the field too.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Suave, good to be back :thumbsup:



Thanks Mike and Trish, good to be imaging small distant things again...REAL imaging :D :thumbsup:



Cheers Big Al, more than happy how the AG12-H694 stacks up against the 14.5"RCOS-STL combo...it ain't just focal length ;) :thumbsup: As for the blue.?..I definitely think it is a bluish galaxy but...I do have a penchant for blue :question: :love: :)



Thanks Lee, yes, after hitting a few cool wide fields for a while now, it is a little exciting thinking of the next few objects to hit at higher resolution...absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say... :)



Thanks Andy, yeah, seeing distant galaxies through closer galaxies, is pretty cool :thumbsup:



Thanks Paul, the main attraction to image this galaxy was probably the composition with the bright star, that's actually pretty rare. :)

Mike

[Atmos]

Very well captured Mike, a plethora of smaller galaxies smattered throughout the field and very well resolved in the arms :)

[cometcatcher]

A most excellent image. I strive to do half as good.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah it came together ok Col, the distant spirals are cool huh? cheers :thumbsup:



Thanks Kevin and hey, you do alright and you can be pretty prolific! :thumbsup:

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Big Mike,
let's let CHART32 decide on the colour?
http://chart32.de/component/k2/galaxies/ngc45

they have it as a blue coloured galaxy. :)


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Hadn't seen that one actually, cool :thumbsup:...their results are simply the best around huh? Yes, clearly plenty of blue star clusters throughout the arms there too, so when viewed at lower resolution, like in my image :P, that would definitely translate to fairly blue arms :thumbsup:...dang! we gotta get our gear up at 2200m with sub arc sec seeing year round....if I ever go remote hosting, it will have to be somewhere in Chile!

Mike

[ChrisV]

Amazing. That's a seriously small Galaxy - looks more like it's going to get eaten by the foreground stars

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Chris, yeah it's a lot smaller than the popular brighter galaxies usually imaged this time of year (eg NGC 253, 300, 55 and 247 etc) but plenty big enough to still show some nice details :thumbsup: and the pairing with the bright star is pretty uncommon.

Mike

[strongmanmike]

I wasn't totally happy with the visibility of the HII regions so I enhanced the Ha channel. 105min of Ha isn't enough really, I probably should have collected a fair bit more but at least now the various magenta-red patches are a little more visible scattered across the arms :thumbsup:

Same links as before

Mike

[topheart]

Lovely!
I love the bright star juxtaposing the galaxy.

Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Tim, yeah, the cool pairing was the main reason I chose it as a target, (another) one to hit with the 20"..? :D

Mike

[John Hothersall]

Another great image, not familiar with this one. I love the colour pattern on the bright star diff spikes and the two edge on galaxies caught in the spiral arms. Seeing must have been great to get such detail in background galaxies.

John.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
I like your latest version.
No one can beat CHART32 -
sometimes you'd think it was a Hubble pic.
It's amazing that you've got such an accurate image from Australian skies.
I'm glad to see that you took on a less well known target.
Maybe that's what the amateur astronomers should be doing?
There must be many galaxies out there which would be worth
a better pic than whatever is currently available.
I wish we would have had a dozen Hubbles out there -
not one that will end its life soon.
How many 1000s of galaxies remain unimaged at even the resolutions
& high quality that you have demonstrated?
If you look here - it's great many:
http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc00.htm#ngcic




cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Cheers John, yeah the seeing was ok, makes a difference imaging at 0.83"/pix compared to 3.5"/pix, I hardly notice variations in the seeing with the wide FSQ-16803 combo.



Yeah, I like to image different things and I think I will be on galaxies and maybe a PN or two, with the AG12, for a while now :) Great list that Al :thumbsup:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Yes you do! See attached histogram.

It's a great image though Mike - lovely composition with the bright stars in there. Lots of faint fuzzies too - some nicely resolved.

Psssst .... it looks even better without the blue cast. :D:D

[strongmanmike]

He he thanks Marcus...the usual tests suggest I am not colour blind...but perhaps I am colour biased, I dunno :question:...when I remove the blue cast the overall image just doesn't look as good..to my eyes at least, on either of the quite different screens I use :shrug:

I almost never refer to histograms for colour processing either, it's all in my eye...regardless of what that produces :)...I have a long history of making my images a little blue biased, I've been called out on it many times over the years.

Mike

[Bart]

Lovely stuff, Mike!


Lots here to like!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Bart, looking forward to next New Moon week :thumbsup:

Mike