Abell 1060 Hydra Galaxy Cluster

[strongmanmike]

This was a last fill in effort before dawn this morning after a three day marathon on something else (coming soon :D)

This is a magnificent galaxy cluster about 165 million Ltyrs away showing 100's of members across the huge 1.6deg X 1.6deg field here.

For the thrill seakers (Marcus :D): Full Size Full Res image (6meg) (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/131549566/original)

For a quicker look (600k): Close up of the central gluster members (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/131549579/original)

A close up of the cool overlapping galaxies NGC 3314 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/131550582/original) only 2.3' 1.7' in size

Only 90min Luminance so far so hopefully I will get to add more plus the colour soon :thumbsup:

Mike

[multiweb]

Loads of galaxies in this field. Pretty cool. :thumbsup: What's with the big flares at 2 o'clock on the brightest stars? It appears in many of your latest shots. Not the older stuff though.

[h0ughy]

All i see are white dots and fuzzy white dots and a satellite trail:P:thumbsup::hi:

Fantastic field of view Mr Sidionio:thumbsup::thanx: Brought a smile on the dial;)

[SkyViking]

Oh, my favorite galaxy cluster! The full size frame is fantastic Mike, can't wait to see it in colour! It looks very promising, I hope you get to add the colour soon.
I did this one with the ToUCam a couple of years ago and I'll definitely be homing in on it again once I get a bigger CCD. This cluster is so rich and diverse, and beautifully framed between the bright stars - a real gem. I wonder why it's not imaged more often.

[Hagar]

Now thats a gagle of galaxies. Loads and loads of them. Beautifully resolved Mike. Lots have very nice identifiable detail.

Great shot Mike. (NEW DATA?)

[Fabiomax]

Really it is a travel trought the space......I hope you can post colours as well for this amazing picture!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[TrevorW]

Mike you need a bigger scope you could probably man handle a HST

nice comparison

[batema]

That is an amazing amount of galaxies. Can't wait to see this with colour and your other photo.

Mark

[Stevec35]

Excellent as always Mike. The star flares are slightly off putting but the details is great.

Cheers

Steve

[rogerg]

Spectacular, great to see a shot like this :thumbsup:

[astroron]

AS Above, but what a lot of galaxies :eyepop:
I would love to see What you would you get with more aperture:thumbsup:

[zipdrive]

I wanna see this "something else" NOW!! can't wait:D

[Jutscher]

That image just keeps going, the longer you look, the more you find, in fact I keep expecting to find Walley.

A beautiful image, probably done at 1/100000th the cost of HDST, you might even create a new conspiracy theory that Hubble doesnt really exist.

Nicely done.:)

[strongmanmike]

Thanks everyone :hi:

I will get the colour next session to complete the vista, it was truly a case of ..hmm? what's up there now and high at 3am :question:....ah huh! the seeing wasn't too bad either so I went for the little bunch of distant blighters :thumbsup:

The star flares..:question:..still haven't tracked that one down yet, coming from somewhere in the imaging train, most likely something is sticking in to or providing some sort of incident reflective surface in the light path somewhere.... I've just got used to them now. I guess you poor RC and Newtonian users have to put up with it :shrug:...besides they grow on ya ;)...actually, images of this field done with an RC or Newt show much larger diffraction spikes on those two bright stars.

Mike
ps just starting the processing on the other image from this dream weather new moon run we were blessed with :thumbsup:

[p1taylor]

There ant harfa lot of galaxies in there, really good wide angle shot.

peter

[multiweb]

Can't be your scope. It's gotta be some filter/filter wheel or camera thing. Doesn't look bad. Just wondering what it was.

[marc4darkskies]

Thant's a fantastic field Mike!! - and not too shabby for only 90 mins data either - looks like the seeing was great - well done! And THAAAANKYOU - that full frame is really nice to swim around!

Cheers, Marcus

[CoolhandJo]

Nice interesting shot!

[David Fitz-Henr]

Absolutely awesome Mike!

[strongmanmike]

he he, yeh I posted that mostly for you mate :thumbsup:...as I have said before I recon galaxy fields are good at full res, panning around finding all the little galaxies is great fun but it doesn't work as well on Nebula shots becasue I think these need to be appreciated more in one go...?

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers boys :thumbsup:...the full colour should look good and I have plenty of time to get it, this cluster currently rises at about 8.30pm so it will be around for a while.

Mike

[richardo]

Nice one Migel and glad you're having a run of imaging time.....

Yes I'm a big fan of galaxy clusters and this is a beaut!!

Now we'll wait for the colour rendition to blow us away :P

All the best
Rich

[Martin Pugh]

This has excellent potential Mike when you add the colour. I really look forward to seeing that result.

See if you can tame the flaring though....and that will be your challenge.

Fine image.

cheers
Martin

[marco]

Nice one Mike, but again I have to say it's time for you to upgrade to a larger telescope :lol: At least you can keep comparing with all those Hubbles' narrow fields :thumbsup:

My compliments also on the Seagull, really nice one

Clear Skies
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Hey thanks for taking a peek Martin :thumbsup:

Like Ha only images, big deep B&W galaxy fields take me back to my early days when I saw a few UK Schmidt and Palomar plates.

As for the star flare, it is a bit of an enigma really, this sort of star diffraction pattern is characteristic of having several small protrutions into the light path edge, like might be caused by wires routed along RC spider vanes and mirror edge clips etc.. :shrug:...but I just can't see'em anywhere :question:..maybe shinny bits in the 4" FF and associated extensions can cause this too? Anyhoo I have grown used to it now, like RC and Newt users have to really I guess, the super resolution capabilities of the Starfire don't seem to be compromised...but then perhaps it could be even better :eyepop:



I am upgrading, should be here any day now..?? :D..bigger and faster with a slightly wider field of view (1.8deg X 1.8deg) but it will have slightly less focal length 1140mm v 1300mm.

Sooo, fingers crossed :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Awesome shot Mike.

That's a very interesting galaxy down the right of the central galaxy between the 2 bright stars. It looks a bit like M82. I wonder if it has jets.

It would probably need 5 metres of focal length to bring it up enough to see it clearly though.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Hmm? rushing through the posts huh? :)

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/131550582/original

Mike :D

[gregbradley]

That's interesting.

So is the spiral in in front of that monster behind it or are they in the process of colliding I wonder?

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Chance alignment I believe, one is closer than the other, not interacting.

Mike