NGC 4945 in Cent.

[blueskies123_89]

Hello guys,

I took this image back in May, and never got to process it properly. I thought I could get more data for it but that didn't turn out to be the case, so here it is.

NGC 4945 taken from Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra.

http://www.pbase.com/gzhou_astrophotography/image/126822858

Cheers
George

[gregbradley]

That's a really nice image. Only detraction are the 2 large blue halos on those bright stars. Try sponge tool set to desaturate 50% and rub on the blue halo to tone it down, that would help.

Greg.

[renormalised]

Nice shot:):)

Should've sneaked the camera onto one of the big scopes there:):P

[TheDecepticon]

Very well done!:)

Sometimes trying to get more data is like pulling teeth.:sadeyes:

[strongmanmike]

George, that is an excellent image of NGC 4945, lovely processing and great colour. I don't mind the blue halos actually in this image, they actually add something for me, you may have issues with the Orion Nebula region or the Pleiades though.

I don't think more data would have added much any way

Great job.

Mike

[jjjnettie]

:) It's a delight to the eye. Lovely!

[astroron]

A lovely image, I like it a lot:thumbsup:

[blueskies123_89]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the kind replies.



Yeah I havn't been taking images for that long and this is probably the first time I've encountered large stars in the vicinity of the image. I'll try to fix that up.



Haha! It's unfortunate that most of the telescopes on the mountain were destroyed in the 03 fires, it's mostly an office space now for ANU's astronomers.

Also, does anyone know what the nebulous feature I've circled here is? It's in all of the images of this target, but I can't find it on my Cartes du Ciel program.

Cheers,
George

[Martin Pugh]

I agree with Greg....perhaps you could crop those out?

That said, you have done really good on this...star colours are great, and the galaxy is resolved well.

cheers
Martin

[madwayne]

I agree with the other posters George, nice shot.

The little circled object is another galaxy, NGC4976.

Wayne

[TrevorW]

Overall a good effort George

[Hagar]

Very nice image George. If it were mine I would try to neutralise the background a bit more to remove the blue cast on the background.
Lovely image of a surprisingly hard galaxy. Well done.

[suma126]

awesome shot nice and clean :thumbsup:

[blueskies123_89]

Hi Guys,

Again thanks for the comments!



Thanks Wayne. Actually I think 4976 is a much larger galaxy out of the frame toward the top of the image. Heres the APOD with this field that includes 4976.

http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090109.html

It also shows the feature I'm talking about, which looks more like a nebula than a galaxy methinks.



Cheers Doug, yes I noticed the blue hue and a bit of purple gradient after I posted the image. I'll fix that up sometime.



Hi Martin, thanks for the feedback. I'll try the sponge tool, if that doesn't work we'll see...

Cheers.
George

[Coen]

The circled object is NGC 4945A, mag 12.4, 2.5'x1.6' Class SBm.

NGC 4976 is a larger object and is out of the frame of this picture.

[Screwdriverone]

Yes, I agree with Coen (so does Cartes Du Ciel ) pic attached, outlining 4945A which is also a galaxy, magnitude 12.5

Cheers

Chris

[erick]

Yes 4945A - always good to try and see that visually when looking at 4945.

[multiweb]

Really like the framing. It's good to see the galaxy hanging there in between those two blue stars. Puts everything into perspective and adds a bit of variety to the shot colorwise. :thumbsup:

[luigi]

To me this is a beautiful image, congrats I love it!

[blueskies123_89]

Thanks guys for the compliments.

Yes it is 4945A. I was wrong about the nebulous part. It's interesting how it is hidden behind a star.

I've been playing with the image a bit, and have attempted to neutralise the colour gradient, and get rid of the blue halos. I'm not sure whether the image looks better without the halos, but I think I solved the gradient and the blue hue.

Heres the mod:
http://www.pbase.com/gzhou_astrophotography/image/126822858

And I've attached the original to this post.

Cheers and thanks for looking
George