NGC 5068 in Southern Virgo

[strongmanmike]

Ok...second image this year..during my IIS wilderness banishing :sadeyes:...of what I have always reckoned is a lovely colourful and quaint spiral galaxy, showing plenty of star forming, in southern Virgo, NGC 5068 :love:

There is also some reeeeeeeally faint galactic cirrus in the field that I wanted to include too, so I framed the scene accordingly :)

Please adjust your screen using this guideline for brightness (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55347254/original), so you can enjoy seeing the faint dust in the image :thumbsup: I wanted to keep it looking real and in balance, brightness wise, it is very faint after all, so should look as such.

NGC 5068 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongman/49816464218/in/dateposted/) click on image and pan around with your cursor.

Funnily enough....apparently there is a veeeeeeery faint tidal stream (http://www.chart32.de/index.php/component/k2/item/171) emanating from NGC 5068 that CHART32 seems to have picked up :question: (scroll down)...but even after nearly 10hrs of Luminance, gathered through my 12" F3.8, it has not show up...? :shrug: so that is interesting...reminds me of my NGC 1232 effort (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/ngc_1232) a few years back...ie. stream still not confirmed :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy :)

Mike

[Bart]

Simple and beautiful. Good stuff, Mike.

[topheart]

Hi Mike,
Awesome to see another top shelf image from you!!
Your images and comments have been missed very much!

Welcome back!!

The main galaxy is, as you say, very quaint indeed. Interesting you couldn't confirm the tidal stream.

Cheers,
Tim

[PeterSEllis]

Very nice shot Michael, sharp and colorful, it especially nice to see those background galaxies.

Peter

[strongmanmike]

Thanks mate :thumbsup:



Yes, interesting indeed, they do use a fabulous 32" scope under dark steady skies, sure, but I still would'a thought such a feature, as presented on their site, would have shown up (after stretching) in 10hrs through my scope :shrug: :question:...perhaps it is fainter than I realise? :)



Thanks Peter :thumbsup: So, could you see all the galactic dust on your monitor too? Many people have their monitors pretty dark and high contrast, so faint nebulae and dust gets lost to the view, especially if the monitor is in a bright room. Many people don't even realise this is happening because they have never adjusted their monitors (or the surrounding environment) properly for viewing astroimages.

Mike

[markas]

A strikingly colourful image with great detail - that 10hours L was really worthwhile!


(I'm in the process of imaging this galaxy, but I only have 2hours L so far, which is not enough! But I can vouch for the brown dust on the left of the image:D)


Great picture, Mike!


Mark

[gregbradley]

That's a ripper image. A small but interesting galaxy. You got a lot of detail from it. Love the colour.

Your more recent images are longer than usual exposure times. Its paying dividends.

Greg.

[alpal]

Excellent image Mike,
it's also a much wider field than CHART32 so more galaxies to see.
In fact I think there are 100s of galaxies in your picture and
also what looks like galaxy groups.
Good to have you back.



cheers
Allan

[jahnpahwa]

Yeah, so much to like and to look at in this image! Thanks for sharing, Mike.

For those of us who have arrived during your hiatus, can you please list out the gear used? I see your OTA specs, but am really keen to know more! This is the sort image that I'd like to slowly progress toward.

Thanks,

JP

[Placidus]

A sumptuous, beautiful image Mike. The central bar is very sharply shown as a true bar, rather than a vague elongation. The intense blue of new stars in the (rather abundant) spiral arms is beautifully shown. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thum bsup:

And the background - We stopped counting at fifteen really clean, clear galaxies in the background all showing distinct morphology.

Super-well-done.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Mark, I knew the dust was there, I had imaged the region with the same scope but using much bigger chip (but 1/2 as much image scale) back in 2013. The trick is to make it look like faint dust and not noisy snow or worse..smoothed out...noisy snow :question: :thumbsup:



Thanks Greg :thumbsup:.. you think?..not that much I didn't think...although granted, a couple of images have been a little longer I guess :question:



Thanks Allan, glad you did your usual CHART32 comparison, knew ya would ;) :thumbsup: and I appreciate how you are always kind and complimentary when comparing them, even though those guys produce the best high res deep sky images in the world...:love2: :hi:



Hi JP, glad you liked the image :)

Now, know more?...what would you like to know? All my capture gear is listed at the image links but I guess, the scope rides on an AstroPhysics 1600GTO mount (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/168910433/original), inside a Sirius domed observatory (pushed around by hand all night...) located in the rural-residential fringe just north-west of Canberra (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/157699435/original).



Sumptuous and beautiful...I like that :thumbsup:

The faint distorted galaxy just to the right of NGC 5068, reminds me of a distant NGC 1316 (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146961360/original) or NGC 477 (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140105.html)

Mike

[codemonkey]

Just having another look at this one Mike... still love it! There's more background galaxies than I remember with some really cool shapes.

Looking forward to seeing what you're working on next under that awesome seeing you've been having.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Lee, galaxy images rule yaaaay!....:question: the insides of the running chicken look pretty cool too though...especially when enlarged on a wall :P

Just about to have a tinker with my latest data :D

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Mike - yes but this time you did the CHART32 comparison for me. :)
It is certainly a website where images can be found that we just
can't take in Australia due to the less optimal seeing.
However when I look here:
http://www.chart32.de/component/k2/ctio/equipment
they don't mention any Adaptive Optics that some people here use
such as Peter Ward which have the tip & tilt mirrors and
neither do they have any deformable mirrors with an EMCCD camera
to gain further advantage - at least not that they talk about.
Still - CHART32 has the reference images that all amateur astronomers
in the Southern hemisphere can use to check their own images.


cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

True, I did indeed :)...just in reference to the faint tidal stream.
I think that 32" scope is also a bloody purler too and a corrected Cassegrain, I recon they are better than RC's and can be made to higher perfection :thumbsup:...then there is the site of course :prey2: :thumbsup:

Mike

[Atmos]

I first used your brightness chart, set my screen brightness following the instructions and then I went to view your image I nearly blinded myself on the whites and blues of IIS :lol:

As for the galaxy, very very nice! Like M&T, I lost count on the amount of smaller galaxies scattered throughout the field.

As for AO, deformable mirrors are actually more difficult in a 32" telescope than the telescopes they're traditionally used on which have secondary mirrors LARGER than 32" ;)

On the consumer level AO like what some of us mere mortals use, they work at there best when under the seeing conditions that us mere mortals are using them under. AO from SBIG and SX not only correct for tracking errors (this is their biggest correction), on nights of what WE would consider good seeing they also help correct for the slower moving convection currents within the atmosphere. These tend to be on the scale of a few seconds rather than the 10ms timescales that wavefront correctors are made at. The CHART-32 team rarely have to deal with these kinds of convection currents as they've above them.

[strongmanmike]

Obviously you can adjust your screen to taste using that grid but when properly calibrated you should be able to make out the galactic virus nicely without blowing out the galaxy highlights, when I adjust per my instructions there, it looks beautiful :D

AO...ie proper AO, would be awesome :thumbsup:

Mike

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
I remember reading somewhere that a classical Cassegrain can be corrected
to be superior to a Ritchey-Chrétien.






Thanks Colin,
I didn't know about correction of slower moving convection currents.
I'm not sure but I think deformable mirrors only correct for a tiny portion of the observable field?
In other words it might be good for splitting a double star but
not for a whole picture.






cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

I have always liked the Philip Keller corrected Cassegrains, ever since seeing Johannes Schedlers (http://panther-observatory.com/bio.htm) (one of the CHART32 team) 16"corrected F10 Cassegrain/F3 prime focus combo unit..I used to to drool over it :eyepop: :P it was taking some of the Worlds best deep sky images in the early-mid 2000's. I have also seen Tim Curruthers 20" Keller corrected Cassegrain (http://astrophoto.com.au/equipment.htm) at Savanah Skies, Keller makes excellent telescopes!

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Very nice. I can see the galactic dust though very faint of course. The galaxy is sort of like NGC300 in appearance me thinks. A charming collection of background fuzzies as well. We are very pleased to be viewing this image :2thumbs:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rod, yeah you need to have a decent screen, properly calibrated for brightness and contrast and then the dust is obvious :thumbsup:...many monitors are poorly calibrated for astro viewing and or we view in bright rooms. At home I have a well calibrated monitor in a study nook that I use for processing and a family computer, one of those all-in-one screen/tower combos and I can't adjust the screen fully, it stays quite contrasty, even at full brightness and the dust is visible ok but not as natural, the contrast takes the edge off subtle features and also makes noise a little more obvious in the faint areas. I usually also check my images out on various monitors at work too, to get the right balance. On the good ones it looks great :thumbsup:

Mike