NGC7309 - Three armed spiral?

[JD2439975]

Not sure if this is a true three armed spiral but it sure looks that way.

4 hrs 50 mins of 5min subs, darks, no flats, processed in PS.

Took this one a while ago & was hoping to add some to it but the weather as it is I'll probably never get around to it.
At a Mag of 12.8 & a size of approx 2 arcmins square it really needed a bit more to bring out the faint spirals.

But here it is anyway...I'm happy enough. :D

Justin.

[DavidU]

Nice wide field there Justin. done with a Newt?

[SkyViking]

Beautiful image Justin. Thats a nice little fellow, I don't think I have ever seen this imaged before. Nice work!

[JD2439975]

Gidday Dave, yep done with the 10" GSO & 40D, something like a 50-60% crop & it still looks wide. :lol:



As soon as I saw an image of it in WWT I thought "got to have it".

So, so many striking galaxies of this size in the sky, just a shame they're so hard to image in detail at that size.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Nice image Justin! It looks like a three armed spiral to me as well (with one broken arm) - certainly a challenge to image at such a small angular diameter. Well done!

[JD2439975]

Thanks David, yes the broken arm is an interesting feature, makes me wonder what sort of dynamics are involved...then my brain starts to hurt so I go back to looking at pretty pictures. :lol:

[strongmanmike]

So what exactly attracted you to imaging this galaxy then :question:

It's pretty cool, the spiral arms are quite well defined

MIke

[JD2439975]

Definitely the unusual three armed nature of the beast, a few one armed bandits on my hit list as well.

Would love to get a collection of Arp galaxies together, interacting galaxies are very cool.
ESO 510-G13 the warped edge-on spiral is another I'd like to have, smaller & fainter than 7309 it would never be a masterpiece even at 2.4m FL in perfect seeing but would like to get it anyway.

I guess it's just the attraction to the more unusual, less often seen or imaged stuff...bit like me really. :lol: :screwy:

[alan meehan]

Nice shot Justin its great when you can image some of these faint galaxies its like a new discovery,there seems to be more galaxies in the b/g as well.
thanks for sharing
AL

[Hagar]

Very nice Justin , Love those siral arms. This would be an interesting target with lots of Focal length.

[JD2439975]

Thanks Alan, most shots I've seen of this one are older, grainy monochromes, really wanted to see it in colour...near enough to a new discovery.



Eww yeah, thought about barlowing it to 2400mm FL...but 4 times the exposure for the same photons/pixel had me running scared. :lol:

[Ric]

A lovely widefield capture Justin.

"A galaxy far far away" is the impression it gives me.

Cheers

[Paul Haese]

There are some nice quirky images popping up this week. I like this galaxy. Perhaps some more time on the capture side to sort some noise, but overall a nice capture.

[JD2439975]

From what I can work out about 180 Mlys away Ric, far enough to be a faint little bugger.



Thanks Paul, it does have a certain appeal to it this one.
More time with flats taken is on the cards if this cloud ever goes away. :shrug: