Massive Fornax Galaxy Cluster

[strongmanmike]

I have been wanting to image this great field of contrasting galaxies for a while, I had it all planned for 2 or 3 nights during IISAC 2008 but the weather was crap and I didn't even take my scope to Lostock :doh:

I would have done it last IISAC but the same thing, unpredictable weather.....:sadeyes: I did try and get Humi to image it at IISAC 2009 but bah!...he was too chicken :poke::whistle:

Well last week saw a couple of great nights of clear steady skies at my dark sky site so I was finally able to grab this sought after field as it was at the meridian on dark and I could image it down into the west (my darkest horizon) during our short summer nights.

It was a challenging field to process in a balanced way, eliptical galaxies are always hard to get right I recon...so I hope you like'em :thumbsup:
More exposure would have been good but I am happy with what I got (beggers can't be chosers)

Small full frame image (1meg):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121328357/original

Large Full frame image - great to swim around in (2meg):
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121328378/original

100% resolution crop of NGC 1365 (600k)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121328384/original

Awsome eliptical galaxies at the heart of the cluster (1meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121328848/original

Close up of cute little Saturn Galaxy NGC 1381 (200k)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121328924/original


For those with good broadband who want to see it all in one go at full resolution...here it is (5meg)
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121330330/original

Cheers

Mike

[sheeny]

What an interesting cluster!

Very well captured and presented, as we expect too, Mike!

Al.

[Tom Davis]

Very pretty, nice field.

Tom

[iceman]

Beautiful image Mike, 1365 looks really nice.

[Rodstar]

The extent of the spiral arms on 1365 is far greater than one normally sees. Wonderful work Mike.

[AlexN]

Bravo!!

Take big.. err... bandwidth to post images at full res... Luckily for you, there is not a single freckle out of line in your image, and a full res it is superb...

Very nice colour considering relatively short colour exposure times... it has really vivid and deep colour...

Well done mate.. Gotta be happy with that..

[spacezebra]

All images are stunning Mike. I love Fornax - its hard to steer away from this area once you start observing.

Thank you for posting.

Cheers Petra d.

[Garyh]

Beaut detail Mike! ex in 1365
Really Love the composition!

[Bassnut]

Very sharp and clean Mike, even zoomed in. The galaxys pop out and colour is well balanced.

[multiweb]

Awesome field! :thumbsup: Great details and colors.

[gregbradley]

Oh my, that is just soooo good Mike.:eyepop:

One of your best I reckon. Super.

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Now *that* is what I'm talking about. Nothing to critique here.

Nicely framed contrast between the spiral and elipticals. A great image :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Rippa shot there Mike!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: But please don't repro it - you've hit the nail on the head!! Just beautiful!

Cheers, Marcus

[StarGazing]

Micheal you killed it buddy, Fantastic image. You should be proud.

Alex :eyepop:

[DavidU]

Just superb Mike.

[Hagar]

Very nice Mike. Talk about swim around. What will you fit in with your new camera. God help us all it will take all day to look at one image.

A very pretty area of the sky beautifully captured and processed.
Well done.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks so much Al glad you liked it



Cheers Tom, hope you didn't mind my critique of your image, making slightly negative comments doesn't mean it isn't any good, it is really still a fantastic image, I disslike only pointing out bad points in what is otherwise a corker of an image, it often seems so shallow :sadeyes:



Hey, glad you liked it Mike, getting the nod from you is like getting praise from your Dad..always means a little more :P



Yes, imagin looking at this galaxy through an Orion 50" Dob from Wiruna on a dark cold moonless morning, I recon you'd just about see most of the details captured in this image (in B&W of course) :eyepop:



Thanks so much Alex, the PL11002 really is a great camera, it is hard to imagine that the PL16803 will technically be an even better camera :eyepop: I feel so lucky :innocent:. As for short colour exposures, I have never grabbed extensive colour data for my images, the necessity for it is way over rated. I have never understood the necessity for it particularly the percieved need for going bin 2X2 either :shrug:. The RGB is very forgiving in my experience. Look at Wolfgang Prompers images he too gathers relatively little colour data and his images are amongst the best in the World :thumbsup:.



Hi Petra, I very happy that this image brought you joy...:question:...Armen?

:lol:



AS I said I have had this field in my sights for quite a while.



Well, Freddo, thanks for your kind comments, when I manage to extract this level of detail from 1140mm fl and 6" aperture I always think of you :P...err?..and what I could do with a bigger scope :doh: :sadeyes:



Thanks Marc



Gee you recon?...yeh I am pretty happy with it I guess ..may not even need a repro :P :lol:



Well thnaks Peter, nice praise there from you, much appreciated :thumbsup:



Thanks Alex, it came together rather well in the end, two years of planning came together :thumbsup:



Ta Dave



Yes the full frame full res is worth looking at huh? Posting that size takes a good result to to be able to do :)..funy how every image has its trials and tribulations and the level of result varies, one would think you can just pull out a corker everytime buuuuut like a spag bol there always seems to be differences, very few imagers can consistantly produce the exact same level of look and polish every image, there are few Cromans, Prompers and Gendlers amongst us but they do provide inspiration huh?

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Ahhhhhh... ye are one of the repro doubters my son. You dabbled in this most wonderous art with your NGC 300 but you must complete the full transition to the dark side Marcus, come, join us, seeeee tha light! oh yeh Halelullia brother! :prey:

Mike

..... :screwy: :P

[sjastro]

Excellent image Mike.

Steven

[michaellxv]

Wow, what can I say.:eyepop:

I hope you don't mind, I made a negative and printed it to help me find some of these.

[orestis]

Wow:eyepop: an amazing image love ngc 1365,so much detail.
You should submit it to apod its worth being up there.

Great image:thumbsup:

regards orestis;)

[strongmanmike]

Thanks so much Steve :)



No not at all Mike, in fact I have made some negative versions myself (I always do lots of variatins and crops of my fields :lol:) so I might even post'em :thumbsup:

Glad the shot was useful, I originally intended to do many more hours but the fortitude and determination necessary to do multiple nights with a largely portable imaging rig back and forth to a dark site is only with me a couple of times a year unfortunately :sadeyes:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Orestis

Yes I have submitted it to APOD but the selection process for that site is really kind of a black art in itself and there are so many great images submitted it must be hard for Jerry and Rob to choose even as many as one a day from the hundreds submitted or archived every day :shrug:...although I do see a lot of Acropolis with moon/sun/analima etc in the frame shots getting selected for display...maybe I should take my next deep sky image from Athens :question: :lol:

Mike

[bluescope]

Very nice fov with loads more faint fuzzies lurking in the background and the core detail of 1365 is great ... well done Mike !

:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Yeh thanks Steve, I really wanted to take more exposure ala my infamous Deep Centaurus A shot buuuuut the optimal aligment of all things to do with doing such a task with a portable setup is sadly a very rare ocurance :sadeyes:....I think I need a bigger scope. I'm thinking a 12" F3.8 would do the trick :question:..same FL but faster and larger aperture but still ok for the NJP...hmmm?...that sounds oh soooo familiar :rolleyes: :doh:

Mike

[CoolhandJo]

What a lovely image. Lots to look over and very very clear and colours natural.

[Miaplacidus]

Straight to the pool room, I reckon! Well done, Mike, and congratulations!

Cheers,

Brian.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers guys really glad you enjoyed looking at it, I know that sounds like a cliche but I really do get a kick out of knowing not that people think it is a good image but that people actually enjoyed looking at it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Octane]

Oi, you.

I wasn't a chicken -- I just figured it'd be so tiny.

I will be the first to admit, I don't like imaging tiny objects (it'd be fine if I had a load of aperture and a sensitive device), which is why I went with M45 up at Lostock.

This is a great image, however.

H

[SkyViking]

Very impressive image Mike. There is almost a 3D feel to it, with 1365 popping out in front of the others. Btw that lenticular looks a lot like NGC3115, nice.

[Jeffkop]

Oh magoo .................... YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Balk be-gurk....:lol:

I know what you mean but I still recon your system would have been quite good for this field.

Your M45 was certainly a good image though so you dunn well mate :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers and I agree Rolf, you see a few of these saturn galaxies out there actually when you start to look

Mike

[strongmanmike]

I'm a bit like him in the dark after staring at the screen for a while, I always take a wide birth when I get up off my chair to walk around the scope because I can't see the bluddy thing :lol:

Glad you liked it Jeff

Mike

[rogerg]

Very nice image Mike :thumbsup:

[mexhunter]

Hello Mike:
A photo of dream, brilliant.
Everything is perfect and in its place.
Many greetings
Cesar

[strongmanmike]

Hey thanks Cesar and Roger, appreciate that you both liked the image :thumbsup:

The field was great to work with, so much in there.

Mike

[prokyon]

Good job Mike!
Fantastic, what a great area!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Werner

Hey do you know Wolfgang Promper? I think he likes heavy metal?

Mike

[EddieT]

That's an absolutely beautiful image Mike!
Love it.

[strongmanmike]

Glad you liked it ddie....I feel a tad inadequate though :rolleyes:...it was only a single frame mosaic :lol:

Mike :thumbsup:

[EddieT]

Haha. Well you have noone to blame but yourself for that! :)

[strongmanmike]

Yes I need to take some (more? :whistle:) crazy pills...and some Valium to help my patience levels :lol:. Seriously, I think the only thing stopping me finally venturing into mosaics is the lack of a permanent setup :( :violin:

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Mike,

a stunning shot! I like your field selection. You have only missed a few stragglers whilst picking up all of the main protagonists.

There is very nice detail in both the ellipticals and the SO galaxies not to mention a beautiful rendition of the skys' best barred-spiral.

May more fine weather come your way soon.

Cheers

Coops

[strongmanmike]

Gee thanks Coops, so glad you liked the image!

This galaxy and cluster was always a favourite of mine when I was a young man viewing through my 8" F7:

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/110764271/original

I loved seeing how many galaxies I could get in the field of the 26mm Plossl :thumbsup:

It was an area therefore that I had always wanted to image and image properly...well, over 25 years after first viewing this field I was very happy with the resulting image :).

Mike

[RobF]

Whew - just stunning Mike. So smooth, but so detailed. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Ian Cooper]

Hi Mike,

thanks for sharing that with us. Quite a set up for the mid 80's. We didn't get into Cold Cameras, although we did consider them. My mate Noel Munford and I went down the hypersensitizing road. Our film of choice back then was a 100 asa slide film, Fuji D-100. It had the best colour balance of any film we used. Having said that exposures ranged from 30 to 60 minutes.

David Malin stayed at Noel's home back in 1987 on a visit to N.Z. David set his 10x8 of NGC 253 next to ours and we stood about 4m away. The colour was the same, but even at that distance the grain structure difference was obvious. One through a 12 inch f/7 Newtonian, the other through the Anglo-Australian 48 inch Schmidt! But the colour was good so we were happy.

I first saw the Fornax Cluster through my first telescope, a 4 inch f/9 on a wobbly mount bought for just over $100 from a camera shop. That was a surprisingly good deep-sky 'scope considering the small mirror. The f/9 setup gave great contrast which was important when I was living in the city back then and viewing from the subburbs.

Now for the big question. What is your next target?

[pgc hunter]

Awesome image! I notice alot of tiny fuzzy dots around NGC 1399 - are these background galaxies or globular clusters? Either way, what an achievement!

[strongmanmike]

Yep they are Globs!: http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/121346215/original

Cheers heaps!

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Yes I had a close meeting with David a year or so before you, he gave me a signed copy of his book Colours of the Stars and took a few of my negs and processsed them for me - amplified and unsharp maksed'em :)

My next target..?...with the new 16803 chip on its way...maybe another but bigger galaxy cluster :confuse3:..hard though, depends on so many things :rolleyes:

Mike