A lazy NGC1566

[Peter Ward]

I seem to recall this tiny spiral being nicknamed the "Spanish dancer"

http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery34.html

is a somewhat noisy, not very high res version I started last night....I suspect a few more hours and an AO will do wonders for the end result ;)

[h0ughy]

peter, i hate to say it but i have visually seen this better through Peter Robbin's 30" at qld astrofest. he kept going back to it - one of his favourites.

[Peter Ward]

I can see why....this 'lil sucker is going to take at least 4-8 hours (from the 'burbs at least) of luminance to do it any justice

[strongmanmike]

Nice change from NGC 253 (and Eta Carina :P)

In your own words Peter "A tidy image"

Should look great when you have finsihed it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Thanks, but no need to be PC with me :) ..as is, the image doesn't past muster in my book (but I must admit the stars are nice and round), but as mentioned earlier, I suspect this little galaxy could end up looking a whole lot bigger with some seriously deep imaging.

Searching the web, looks to me like DM's image taken with the AAT is the pick.... emulating it will be tough!

[strongmanmike]

well given your kit, experience and permanent setup I'd bluddy hope so ;)



I think you have it all there already, just need to bring it out.



This one?:
http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat054.html

Bill Pence took this with the AAT and only did 25min each blue & green plus 35min red sensitive emulsions - aperture rules again love to see the actual plates, the detail would be amazing :eyepop:

Mike

[Peter Ward]

Yep...that'd be the image....aperture rules! :)

[Peter Ward]

http://www.go.ednet.ns.ca/~larry/astro/maglimit.html

would indicate that visually a 30" scope should top out at around 17th magnitude in a mag 6 sky.

You can also forget photopic vision...images at this intensity level are very much shades of gray.

What did my rig CCD pull in mag 4 skies? Try around mag 20.

It's interesting how perceptions are often mixed ;)

[spearo]

nice to see work in progress
look forward to the final version to see the difference
frank

[h0ughy]

:fishing:;) biting well:thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

Not really....I found it an interesting observation plus it's hard with so much stuff on the net for newbies to separate the wheat from the chaff :)

A medium-large scope (~14 inch), CCD, deep exposure (say 2-3 hours) should easily pull mag 22

I think Paul Boltwood might have made mag 24? There was something in S&T not that long ago....perhaps someone can refresh my memory?

[astroron]

I observed it in a 16" scope last Night and saw lots of detail,:eyepop: of cause not as much as your image but just as pleasing.:thumbsup:
Ron

[h0ughy]

Peter,

the view through the 30 was pretty good but alas - no colour - very grey for me. to be quite honest that evening I saw this galaxy through my meade 12" and a 10" scope and was quite taken back by the view through the 30" on how much more spiral you pick up. yuo will never beat a long exposure:thumbsup:

Mate i will never have the money, or the skill, to snap what you have, but it is good to see that your still human;).

[Peter Ward]

Amen to that. I did a bit of digging it was Johannes Schedler and Ken Crawford that set the record in 2007, Mag 24.8 with about 16 hours of combined data.

As a ballpark figure, a CCD should be able to reveal stars about 50x fainter than visual observation through the same scope.

Of course the highest QE CCD on the planet will not solve the problem of eight 8th's of cloud over Sydney right now :(

[iceman]

I love this galaxy, one of my first view through the late Mike Kerr's 25" monster at my first SPSP. Blew me away.

[Hagar]

Nice image Peter, Like the bit of grain in the background. Makes you look a little more like us mere mortals. Pretty little spiral with some nice colour.

[Peter Ward]

Appreciate the sentiment....but the data has a *long* way to go. I'm a little embarrassed for being hasty in posting a work in progress.

[strongmanmike]

Woohoo! some noise! YEH! GOTTA LOVE IT!

(said very noisily!)

:lol:

Nothing to be embarassed about, the idea that every image released on a forum must be some sort of perfect "grand presentaion" with some inane accompanying lyrical prose... is a bit try hard nerdy anyway :rolleyes:. (hey Fred am I a try hard "nerd" too..? :doh:)

Mike