Do you like galaxies?

[strongmanmike]

Well it seems my Lambda Centauri image from early in the week wasn't my last before moving house :D

I managed a few hours on the region in Corvus around the "Antennae" or "Ringtail" interacting galaxy pair on Thursday night/Friday morning. (ed: two nights in the week with only 2 hrs sleep doesn't make working during the day easy :screwy:)

There are litterally 100's and 100's of galaxies in this image perhaps 1000's? so I have posted the full frame (4000 x 2600) image at reasonable jpeg resolution (2.3meg) so you can scroll around finding all the interesting things in the image.

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/93900687/original

If anyone cares to try perhaps you might be able to determine a limiting magnitude...?

If you are impatient and would like to just hit the showcase object in the image, here is a crop from the full frame image of the amazing interacting pair or galaxies NGC 4038/4039 often refered to as the "Ringtail" or "Antennae" galaxy (1.5meg):

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/93901149/original

Here's a close up from the right hand side of the image showing what appears to be a distant galaxy cluster (or two?) left of the bright field star..?

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/93903264/original

Lots more in imaging than just getting a pretty picture, the things you can reveal can be astounding :thumbsup:

Cheers

Mike

[mark3d]

very nice :)

[Ric]

Hi Mike, amazing images for sure and the detail in the ringtail is wonderful as well with those interacting dust lanes.

I noticed that the faint tails don't show up, is that because there is a risk of over exposure and washing out all those wonderful faint galaxies.

Cheers

[Alchemy]

nice image.

[Dennis]

Wow Mike – that is one stunning image! I like very much indeed!

Thanks also for the crops showing the various regions of interest, this is truly a remarkable image of a fascinating area. Well worth the sleep deprivation!

Cheers

Dennis

[strongmanmike]

Hi Ric

Hmm?...not sure why you don't see them, they are very distinct my end? There are two main galaxies in the big wide field image - the interacting pair is top left and the other is bottom right in the image, are you looking at the correct galaxy?

Do you see them in this link to the crop of just the Antennae? If not then you will be missing all the faint background galaxies too so I think your monitor needs lightening or callibrating? Try viewing in a darkened room too?

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/93901149/original

How is Womboin BTW?... I am VEEEEEEEEERY jealous of your skies :sadeyes:

Mike

[theodog]

Stunning image Mike
Well done

[tornado33]

Most impressive, particularily for 2 reasons.
1 It goes so deep wuth the "tails" wel shown despite it being taken from an urban location.
2 Less than 2 hours in Ha luminance produces all that detail. I would have thought many hours would be needed for that.
Also unusual to see HA imaging on galaxies, it sure works well here.
Scott

[Tamtarn]

Great image Mike. Thanks for posting the link for us to have a browse around. Lots of galaxies there and a satellite trail as well :thumbsup:

[EzyStyles]

:eyepop: beautiful just beautiful. the arms are so visible and heaps of details on the surface of the galaxy . i had a go at this but hardly capture the faint arms.

[strongmanmike]

Ah..Oooops! That should have been "LRGB" :D

To have gathered that using Ha would have been a miracle :lol:..mind you adding some Ha may have showcased the HII in the centre of the colliding pair though..? Next time..?

Sorry about that

Mike

[astro_south]

Great image Mike - just love surfing around a detailed full frame like this one and hunting down the galaxies.

I noticed up the top some potential movement between colour frames (red and blue) - some possible asteroids? Doesn't look like any flare. I have attached a crop of the area. By the colour changes it appears they (whatever they are) are moving in opposite directions too!

[marc4darkskies]

Beauty Mike - nice one to hunt around in! :thumbsup: It would be reeeeeally nice if was just a little deeper though. What length subs did you use?

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Thanks



Glad you liked it Mark



In a field like this where there is only one or two smallish showcases it is nice to post the full frame size image so the incredible amount of background detail can be appreciated. On the right of the full frame image above centre there is an interacting pair of distant yellow galaxies one face on spiral and one edge on, this is really cool - see if you can fond them :)



Cheers oDog



I tend to leave satellite trails in if they don't go throug the middle of the image, they create a sense of human achievemnet since they are man made and are flying in front of light on its way to my telescope, for me to record, after a journey of millions or even billions of years !



Hi Eric

I am very happy with the good compromise the Starfire provides in FL and image scale ie enough FL to grab details while still allowing for a reasonable FOV to frame more objects, the superb unobstructed optics help too ;) It is incredible to think that in the 60's it took a deep plate on the 200" Hale telescope in California to reveal a grainy record of those arms, now we amateurs can grab them clearly and from our backyards with a 6" scope :eyepop:. I would have liked to get more data on this region to bring out the arms even better but I ran out of imaging time in gathering the 4 hrs worth I did manage. It's a pain having to get the seperate R G B & Lum and do flats after each filter, re focus every 30min etc to get 4 hrs of quality data takes about 5 - 6 hours really. If the positioning of the camera at the end of the telescope is favourable the NJP can go nearly 2 hrs past the meridian. 4 hrs of total data is about as long as I can go if I don't want to start with the object too low in the sky. If I do the R G B first I get gradients that are hard to deal with as each filter is shooting through gradually changing sky brightnesses. In this case I wanted maximum detail so decided to do the R G B first anyway and then collect the Lum last when the region was highest above the horizon. This region passes almost through the Zenith so the 2 hrs of Lum were gathered in quite good seeing (FWHM = approx 1" - 2")



Yes I love galaxy surfing wide field deep images, the plethora of distant background galaxies really brings home my insignificance.

No the colour dots are just due to the fact that there was image shift between each filter, each set of dots represents an uncorrected hot pixel. I was on Red for nearly and hour then Green for an hour then Blue for an hour and in that time there is image drift so when the frames are aligned the hot pixels appear in different spots for each colour frame.



See post to Eric above - just not enough time in one night and without a permanent setup I can't be stuffed doing multiple nights on the one object, particularly since I prefer to avoid meridian flips (too complicated for me). I would love to do multiple many hour compilations though one day when I have an observatory again. I try to drag as much out of my limited data it's true, so I tend to push the noise envelope a bit I know. I prefer to avoid noise reduction software as it always loses detail so I try to find a happy medium between creating processing induced noise and revealing faint features. Se la vi.....Oh I am still using 10min subs, I have a set of five 10min subs I took back in Sept at -35C so I keep sticking to 10min (and -35C) so I can use these in my image reduction :lol: (Lazy?). I have found that 10min is ok though for most things and I still get the occasional stuff up or tracking glitch so 10min is an acceptable time to lose in a weather environment where I may lose the night altogether and time is precious - it seems to be a happy medium so far?

[montewilson]

Mike ! Apart from the galaxy clusters, I think that irregular galaxy is quite interesting.

Well done. See you at the SPSP.

[Garyh]

Very nice Mike! Throughly enjoyed the image :thumbsup:
This is my next to do object tho it shall be little with my setup!
cheers Gary

[jase]

Nice work Mike. Looks like you experienced an R,G,B frame alignment problem as the stars in the top left of frame on the first link don't appear aligned - colour bleeds around the edges. Regardless, a pleasing result. I hear you regarding colour channel gradients. They're a pain to deal with, but what's life without challenges. Well done.

[tornado33]

Yep, great work indeed.
When I had a try of the GRAS telescopes, I soon realised just how much work there is doing LRGB imaging, as 4 separate sets of darks, bias and flats for the LRGB have to be separately processed, then the images combined (now I know why you dont bother binning the RGB, it all adds yet more work upsizing them to the luminance)
I forgot to ask, what guide scope camera do you use?
Cheers, Scott

[Ric]

Hi Mike, yep it's my end with my settings.

Wamboin is getting that nice Autumn sky at the moment, cool and clear and the seeing is really starting to improve.

Cheers

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Monte

Sure will, I am looking forward to doing some visual observations actually as SPSP seems to be just about the only time I do any these days.



Go for it needs some long exposures though.



Sheesh, picky, picky :confuse3:.....that'll teach me to post such a magnified version huh? :rolleyes:

If I have to, I use gradient exterminator in PS for gradients but not having them in the first place is ideal. A nice dark site helps too :thumbsup:



Yep it can be a pain no wonder the big boys spend the big doh to automate everything huh? I use an Orion ED80 mounted piggyback:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/79551561/original

the smaller scope is a cheap 70mm refractor used simply for balancing :D



Did you manage to change your settings? I am still very jealous of your location. The Canberra region is just about the best all round area for astronomy IMO - high, inland, dry, no salt and very little pollution while still being a big city with all that goes with that.

Mike

[Ric]

Hi Mike I redid my settings, it's more spectacular now. Thanks for that.

I don't want to upset you but it was another beautiful night here again last night.

Cheers