NGC 1532: Jabba perfects his synchronized swimming

[Placidus]

We've added another night of luminance (under good seeing) and another night of RGB to our 2016 version of NGC 1532, a wonderful pair of colliding galaxies in Eridanus.

We now have 16 hours of Lum and 3h30 per channel of RGB, all with the same scope and camera chip.

(For those who saw the facebook version, this has more RGB, and is a complete reprocess, paying more attention to sharpening artifacts in the very brightest parts of the galaxy).

The streaks of star formation, especially in the tidal tails, are remarkable.

We have previously mentioned that 1532 has a remarkable resemblance to Jabba the Hutt, with the small colliding galaxy representing the head, the main galaxy the body, and the two strong tidal tails representing the balletic, swimming hind legs. Beware the True Power of the Dark Side!

20 inch PlaneWave. 2016 data taken using an Aspen CG16M, and 2020 data an FLI PL16803. They use the same Kodak chip.

[As usual, all processing software and all dome, scope, mount, and focus control hardware, firmware, and software written/built by us in-house.]

BIG ONE HERE
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Category/Astrophotography-at-Placidus/i-nMtV6nF/0/f1c0d947/O/NGC%201532%20Lum%2016hrs%20RGB%203h 30%20each.jpg)
Best,
MnT

[strongmanmike]

Excellent, go Jabba....You weak minded fool! He’s using an old Jedi mind trick..

Intriguing and cool looking galaxy..or galaxies! They really do some strange things to one another when they get close, huh..? bloody gravity wells :rolleyes:

Mike

[gregbradley]

That turned out great. I like the colour and the detail. That big loop of stars on top showed up really well.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

A superb rendition M&T! :thumbsup::thumbsup: wonderful detail and colour.!

[Placidus]

Thanks Mike. Tried very hard with this one to go easy on the artifacts, and to keep comparing the finished image with the raw stack.

The small interacting galaxy has what looks like a lightning bolt through it. Presumably it is just a bar and the inner parts of a pair of spiral arms seen at a funny angle and after mucho gravitational interaction.

[Placidus]

Cheers Greg! We leaned on the saturation a bit, but I think it's legit. That loop is quite faint.



Thanks Marcus!

Best,
MnT

[AUST2000]

Well Mike & Trish, that looks stunning to me!


Andrew

[Ryderscope]

Not sure about Jabba the Hut but it is definitely a stunning galaxy with lots of superb detail and plenty of background fuzzies.

As an aside and as I am writing I am collecting data on this very object. I cannot get as up close and personal as you with my feeble 5" compared to your 20" but I will give it a good go :D.

CS,
Rodney

[vlazg]

I can’t see Jabba but maybe the Enterprise? :question:
Fascinating image and nicely processed

[ChrisV]

Excellent. That's a really interesting interaction. No Jabba for me either, but I can see someone skating

[Placidus]

Thanks Andrew.



Many thanks Rodney. Reckon you'll do well with the 5" because we don't have an especially good fit between pixel size and seeing. We're oversampled for 1x1, and undersampled for 2x2 binning. We should have bought the focal reducer on day one. Bigger field, and 1x1 would be perfect. Too late now: too much other stuff relying on the current back focus. We live and learn.





Thanks Guys. Perhaps Jabba the Hutt is more of a feeling than a thing, because this fellow clearly has two long thin legs. More of a frog, perhaps. Or just two colliding galaxies with tidal streams.

[multiweb]

The leaping frog galaxy. Over the years you've kept adding to it and the colors and details are superb. A master piece. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Andy01]

Nice result M&T! :thumbsup:

As interesting as Jabba is, I'm also loving the tour through the high res playing "Where's Wally" with the feint fuzzies in the background :D

[topheart]

Awesome!

Cheers,
Tim

[Placidus]

Ah, you recognized it! The improvements this time are only incremental, with slightly better (and stronger) colour, and a clearer demonstration of that very faint arc across the top, but it is much deeper than the Wikipedia image.



Thanks Andy, glad you had fun looking around.



Cheers Tim!

Very best,
MnT

[DavidTrap]

Wow - I love the detail, including the rainbow diffraction spikes!

DT

[Peter Ward]

Serious perture, long FL, great camera, pristine skies....mix well and season to taste. Wonderful stuff ! :thumbsup: