A deep field of LMC

[Antu]

Hi Folks,

I am happy to share with you one of the images of the LMC. Well, one can say - another image of this galaxy out of millions :) Almost true. Except the fact I tried to take an advantage of being in the middle of Atacama desert and pushed the limits as far as I could do. Did it work or not, you judge. Thanks for looking and enjoy !

Kenko Skymemo, Canon 400D (Hutech mod.), 50/1.4 @ 2.8, ISO800, 50 x 4 min

http://tinyurl.com/2ptbza

[dugnsuz]

Very nice Antu,
It looks as if you've pulled out the faint remnants of the spiral arms of this galaxy in the outer halo.
Great work
Doug

[acropolite]

Nice image Antu, I can imagine the sky is very dark at your location.

[h0ughy]

bugger cant open the tiny url from here at work

[leon]

It wont open for me either Houghy, and I'm at home.

Leon

[Antu]

Sorry, the server was down. I put the image on another one and replaced the link in the first message. Try again, please.

[dannat]

Image link worked for me and was stunning, terrific shot:eyepop:

[h0ughy]

hey that is a great image - look at the star colours wow!!

[tornado33]

Yes Ive never seen the outer halo like that before, quite amazing.
Scott

[Terry B]

Interesting image. Very different colours to the AAO image here (http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/uks014.html)
Not sure what the halo is though.

[leon]

Nice image, never really seen the LMC looking like that, it seems very bright, however the stars are sharp, you have done well.

Leon

[rogerg]

Very nice :thumbsup:

[glenc]

Antu you have captured a large faint halo around the LMC. Very well done.
Do you have a higher resolution image?

[Phil]

wow lots of detail in there great shot.
Phil

[citivolus]

Very nice detail in the faint areas.

[solissydney]

Wow, terrific

[Benny L]

fark!! got stars lol

freaking fantastic :eyepop:

[Tamtarn]

Wonderful detail Antu and to capture the outer arms makes this a very special image indeed.

Your location in the middle of the Atacama desert must be magical for DSO Imaging. Your question was " did it work or not " WOW it sure did :eyepop:

We look forward to you posting more images.

David and Barb

[seeker372011]

top image..are you happy with the skymemo? how hard do you have to work to get quality shots like you posted?

[Dietmar]

hi Antu,

that is an incredible shot!
gorgeous resolution and clearity !
for my personal colors might be a bit more intense.
nevertheless - a splendid image!

BTW:
I have not asked yet - your nick - does this referr to the god(ess) in gilgamesh epos...???
Antu and Anu...the parents of all gods...

[sjastro]

Antu,

Sorry to buck the trend, but there is something not right with the image. The nebular detail in the LMC is completely washed out. The Tarantula should stand out but is inconspicuous due to the lack of colour.

Perhaps stretching the red channel will bring out more detail.

Regards

Steven
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/small

[Terry B]

I tend to agree and am not sure what the halo is. Is it real or an artifact or internal reflection from inside the 50mm lens? I haven't seen it before on images taken with big pro scopes.
Still a nice image to look at.

[Antu]

Thanks for your comments, guys ! I really appreciate that.



Very good question, Dietmar :) Actually the name "Antu" comes from Mapuche language and means "The Sun". Also, this is the name of one of the VLT's at ESO Paranal observatory where I work as an astronomer.

Regarding the image itself, I fully agree it's not perfect. sjastro have already pointed out at the color problem. That's right, surprisingly red color is almost gone as a result of the data reduction. Moreover, it must be there much brighter (I use Canon 400D, modified by Hutech). Therefore I completely agree the color correction is far from being perfect and accurate. I'll try to repeat the data reduction once again and improve the colors.

As for the halo, I did few tests and I'm pretty sure it's real (as well as the faint nebulae visible on the image). The reason why you don't see it on many other images - perhaps people have never tried to get such deep and wide field image of this galaxy ? :) For instance, look at another very deep image obtained by Stephane Guisard (who also works at Paranal):

http://www.astrosurf.com/sguisard/Pagim/LMC-STL-135mm_V1.html

The faint structure of the LMC is there :) There is "one to one" correlation. Anyway, it's always good to double check the result especially when one works at the limits.

Some time ago I have observed the Tarantula nebula as a part of my science project at 2.2m ESO telescope at La Silla. We produced an extremely deep mosaic of 1x1 deg in several filters. You can have a look at the result here:

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/phot-50-06.html

[dugnsuz]

Thanks for the Tarantula mosaic link.
The zoom feature on the pic is fun to play with - fantastic detail.
Still love the original LMC pic too

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for posting the link to Stephane Guisard's image of the LMC. This image clearly verifies that you have captured the outer arms of the galaxy which are depicted in your image.

As there have not been any other images that we have seen with such detail we find it fascinating. Well done !!

[glenc]

I just looked at Stéphane Guisard image.
Wow!

[Dietmar]

hi Antu,

thank you for the explanation of the name.
fascinating story!

also thanks for linking us to Stephane Guisard.

hey people - would you take a look on that:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/fap/ap080408.html

a most perfect image and very well deserved upcoming NASA APOD for sure!

[Antu]

Absolutely stunning image ! You're right. Fine structure and colors of the whole Orion area is simply fantastic.