IC 5332 - a super-faint but very tidy spiral

[Placidus]

The exquisitely beautiful face-on spiral IC 5332 in Sculptor is ridiculously faint. The surface magnitude is about 23.7 per square arcsec, which is about two magnitudes fainter than a good dark sky. We were impressed by Joe Cauchi's image of this galaxy, and all the way up to astonished by Martin Pugh's. Few others have been brave enough to try it. Wikipedia mentions that there is not much star formation going on here. The galaxy should therefore not be so especially colourful, but instead should be rather subdued.

Big image here (https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-vvr5Bnm/0/b7ae78fa/X5/IC%205332-X5.jpg)

Seeing was pretty ordinary going on terrible, and we don't have adaptive optics, so we don't come anywhere near Martin's rendition for detail, but we think the depth is there, and we've tried to be neutral to careful with the colour, rather than showing it as bright blue when it isn't.

Note the most unusual-looking galaxy toward top left of the big one. It seems to have a hole punched in it, reminiscent of NGC 247.

So far we have 12hrs 30 mins of luminance in 30 min subs, plus a total of 6 hours of RGB. Expecting a week of rain over new moon :( so this will do for now.

FLI PL16803 camera on 20 inch PlaneWave CDK. All control electronics, firmware, acquisition and processing software built or written by us in-house. That it works at all is a miracle.

[Andy01]

Now that is an amazing field - sooooooo many galaxies, of all kinds to see!
Ina addition to the odd one you mentioned, there appears to be a pair of interacting galaxies at the edge of the frame at 2 o'clock. :eyepop:

The hero looks great, diaphinous and ethereal as you say it should. :)
Just wondering about the star colours though, they look a little "coloured in" at the cores? :question:

Regardless, it's a great image - Nice work team! :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

I think Mr A. Powers said it best:

"Yeah baby" :party:

Much Mojo in that one.

[Paul Haese]

It's a nice rendering Mike. I did this faint sucker myself a few years back too. I did not collect as much as you simply because I gave up. I'll look forward to you further results.

[Placidus]

Thanks so much Andy. We've had another good look at the stars, and they are as you describe. Silly processing error - trying to do colour balance on an already burned out star core. That is fixable. But the big problem is noise. We need another night dedicated to RGB.



Thanks Peter, that's encouraging. :)



Thanks Paul. Perhaps we'll get a couple nights of better seeing next new moon. The beastie will be around for quite a while. it's such a nice galaxy (and such an interesting deep field) that it's worth another go.

Best,
MnT

[strongmanmike]

Always like a good portly face on spiral galaxy, even a faint one :thumbsup: You're right, this one is not tackled very often by deep sky imagers :question: even though it is a very interesting and shapely example :shrug:

Yeah but blue looks good :D ;) and there are a few HII lumps scattered around the arms, so while not a lot, at least some star forming is going on at least :question:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Yes it is faint. I have imaged this one as well - 12 hours too.

I like your colour of the galaxy itself. Those knots in the arms may be globs?

Lots of background galaxies as well.

Another galaxy similar to this one is NGC1232 which is up now as well.

Greg.

[DavidU]

Super effort that !

[DavidTrap]

Very nice M&T,

Curious to what the blob is at 10-11 o'clock??

And one day I'll get diffraction spikes like yours...

DT

[Atmos]

The thumbnail really doesn't do the full field justice, so many galaxies smattered throughout the field. Very nicely done M&T! The distorted galaxy around 10:30 in the central field fascinates me.

[SimmoW]

Fantastic M&T! About as close to a Hubble deep field as an amateur image can get.

[marc4darkskies]

Very cool M&T! :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Cheers Mike. One day we must have a go in H-alpha.



Thanks Greg. We will have a look for NGC 1232.



Thanks David.



We're presuming the blob is a tidally disrupted galaxy. Colin thinks so too - see below.



Thanks Colin! Think of the forces involved. Best to keep our thumbs out of the way.



Thanks very much Simon. Glad you like it.



Thanks Marc. We are much encouraged.

Best,
MnT

[Ryderscope]

Superb. I like the perfectly formed spirals that go all the way to the core of the galaxy.

[multiweb]

Sub zero cool. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
One for the extension room.

[Placidus]

Thanks Rodney. It is pretty.





Thanks Marc! :) And the extension room even has a view of the tiny pool.

[codemonkey]

Man, that one does look faint. Awesome job guys and thanks for sharing, don't think I've seen this field before.

[Placidus]

Thanks Lee, that's kind.

[ChrisV]

Crikey! So much weird stuff going on around a really spectacular galaxy.

[topheart]

Awesome galaxy shot there!
Well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[Placidus]

Cheers Chris!



Thanks muchly Tim.