NGC 3981 The Disintegrating Galaxy

[strongmanmike]

This was my April /May project, galaxy NGC 3981 in Crater.

Taken leisurely, over seven cool-mild Autumn nights (not like today! see attached :cold:), conditions were generally pretty good, with two of the seven nights providing excellent seeing
with the first night on 2 April, returning a very steady FWHM of 1.4"-1.6" (https://pbase.com/image/175525792original) for most of the night, so I used the best 50% (FWHM 1.4"-1.8")
of the 17+hrs of 10min Lum sub frames collected, to best reveal the details in the brighter areas and the whole lot for the rest (FWHM under 2.1") and fainter extensions.
I also collected 3hrs of Ha to help bring out the HII regions.

I only had to chuck about a half dozen or so sub frames, from the seven nights and all up it was a 27.5hr exposure :thumbsup:

The full res version and a description of the galaxy and acquisition details can be found at these platforms, depending on your preference:

AstroBin (https://app.astrobin.com/u/Strongmanmike?i=7f9pss#fullscreen)

PBase (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/175525726/original)

Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongman/54576354397/in/photostream/)

And...go HERE (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/175525723/original) for a surf around the full frame

Hope you like it :)

Mike

[alpal]

Good one Mike,
you have gone for a tough target - nearly magnitude 12 -
normally reserved for the largest telescopes.

https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc39a.htm#3981

cheers
Allan

[TrevorW]

Brass monkeys Mike, great image :)

[atalas]

A great galaxy choice but whats happening in the core mike?the rest of the field looks great.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah tough but such a crazy shredded galaxy, nothing else like it really, had to shoot it :D



Thanks a lot Trevor, stop talking'bout me balls :lol: I have none, see attached :D



Thanks Louie but err?.. sorry, ya being a little cryptic :confuse3:...whatch ya see'in? Which bit troubles you?

Mike

[atalas]

Well,I know I just crawled out my crypt but the core looks strangely wormy to me.....or maybe I'll just mosey on back to my crypt :zzz2:

[DarkArts]

Disintegrating galaxy? You mean the front fell off (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke_and_Dawe).

Nice weather ... for eskimos. :cold:

[Ryderscope]

Love it. Excellent composition and an interesting unique galaxy :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

If you are talking the dreaded decon worms :eyepop:..ah nah, aint them, that's just the details at my resolution and seeing, plus astigmatism limited optics..



Loved Clarke and Dawe, they nailed all the idiocy, stupidity and irony nicely, sheesh, imagine what they could do now, in the Trump era :eyepop: :)



Cheers mate, I agree, it's a unique looking galaxy, can't think of a similar example really..? :question:

Mike

[Crater101]

Not only is that a superb image, I like the way the main feature sits higher in the frame. Seems to make it feel like it's tilting towards you. Top notch stuff.
For what it's worth - we haven't had quite the weather you did, but I've got a lot of clouds here I'd like to get rid of if you need some...

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Warren :thumbsup:...just checking though, you also looked at the links to the larger file versons too, not just the thumbnail attached to the post, as that is only a 50% res small crop attached so the post gets a thumbnail..

Mike

[Startrek]

Mike,
As always a top image from the highest observatory in Oz.
One fact that stands out is that this galaxy is 65million light years from home and you’ve resolved detail remarkably well. That elevation under stable skies is unique and certainly gives you a key to open up the Universe.
Beautifully processed and love that Star field
Well done !!
Martin

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Martin :thumbsup:

The other thing that makes revealing decent details in the galaxy is that the inner galactic disc is highly tilted to our line of sight too, more face on galaxies, even at 65 million light years, tend to show more features.

Mike

[Crater101]

I did indeed! Always happy to check out quality work. ;)

[strongmanmike]

Ah ok, eeeexcellent Smithers, eeeeexcellent and thanks a lot :2thumbs:

Mike

[gregbradley]

A unique galaxy and a brave target being so faint.

Love the spiral arms flying out. So delicate. Your setup and location has proven again to reveal faint detail.

Good one. That must be about your longest ever exposure.

Is this the start of patient Mike?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Greg, yeah it's a really cool looking galaxy, different :thumbsup:

While none are in the Rolf or AstroBin group effort class, that abound these days, I've done a few exposures around this length now, my M83 from last year (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/174678436/original) was the same exposure time and my longest exposure ever was 52.5hrs over 10 days on Cen A with the FSQ106 (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/169299841/original) back in 2019.

But yes, the site is good and Mike can be more patient these days :drink: :)

[h0ughy]

I like the framing and the tilted perspective of the galaxy. Never heard of it before and never seen it until now. Eye opening.

[strongmanmike]

Cool, glad to be able to show the great Astrofest, cable management and car packing king, Houghy :prey2: something new :)

Mike

[Cosmic]

Always loved your work Mike 💪 what a flex :)

I have the AG10 to play with now, so naturally I'm inspired by your captures. Finally sorted out the little problems I had with it. Things are looking promising now.

Keep up the awesome work and stay warm.

[Leo.G]

That's absolutely beautiful Mike!
I think I know why April/May, because June, July and August are going to be too cold and the dome will be buried in snow?
I remember Canberra in Winter, i travelled there every week for several months for my sons hearing tests/specialists and hearing aid when he was 4, BRRRRRRR

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Daniel :thumbsup:

An AG10 huh? New one? once tuned and if you are lucky enough to get an optically sounds unit, the AG10/12 are arguably the perfect compromise deep sky OTA's IMO. :thumbsup:



While we get the odd decent dump, luckily we don't get toooo much snow, basically only enough to stay "rather quaint and pretty" when it occurs :prey:, rather than being that constant drag that living in a snowy environment could be, like getting bogged in it :scared2: I get good transparency through winter and the humidity can stay surprisingly low, with minimal frost. Generally the temp drops around 5 deg with the drive up the mountain...I would have thought Lithgow's cold would be pretty similar to Canberra's..?

Mike

[Cosmic]

Yeah kind of, well is older ag10 from another member on the forum. https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=191343

Haven't used it anywhere near as much as I would have liked to. I have struggled in the past with star shape for sometime and only recently fixed much of the sensor tilt. I'm now at 5% tilt which l feel is the best I can do, without the help of proper equipment to adjust it perfectly. I think ill have to settle on that number. I can still see the image isn't perfect, but Ill get stuck into imaging and hope pixinsight can meet me in the middle. I've done the best I can do so, ill try make use of these bortle 2 skies :)

[strongmanmike]

OK, wish you the best of luck with sky time! :thumbsup:...this Saturday is a good one, winter solstice, you will have over 11hrs of total Astronomical darkness! :stargaze:

Mike

[Cosmic]

Thanks Mike, its always a pleasure looking upwards :)

Sounds great, I have days off so hopefully things line up nicely. All the best as well and I look forward to seeing the next capture you present to us.:thumbsup:

[Retrograde]

A fascinating object, Mike.
The full-frame looks amazing in context with all the tiny background galaxies. A real glimpse into ultra-deep space.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Pete, I actually processed it to mute the background stars a tad, to better highlight the faint galaxy, so if you view the image in a darkened room on a good well calibrated monitor, it really comes alive and there are a lot of distant background bits and pieces :)

Mike