NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet

[Martin Pugh]

Hello everyone – okay, done the narrowband and the bi-colour thing from SRO, so here is a traditional LRGB.

Personally I am extremely pleased with this result. I never knew I would be able to get this kind of detail out of Stephan’s Quintet with an amateur telescope.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/NGC7331-and-Stephans-Quintet_50PCT.jpg

The full sized (11Mb) version is really worth looking around. The background galaxies are just everywhere.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/NGC7331-and-Stephans-Quintet.jpg (http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/images/NGC7331-and-Stephans-Quintet.jpg)

LRGB 6:2:2:2 hours

Hope you like it.

cheers

Martin

[atalas]

Wow!what a great shot....don't think I've ever seen the Deer Lick Group and Stephan's Quintet in the same field...galaxies all over the place and fluffy stuff(IFN)I guess.

[batema]

That is amazing to zoom around and try to count all the galaxies and the clarity. Beautiful shot.

Mark

[astroron]

Wow, Martin what an image :eyepop:
Absolutly amazing:prey2:
Thanks for shareing :thanx:
Louie My internet dictionary does not have IFN :question:
Cheers :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Holy cow, mind blowing!

[Alchemy]

Very nice..... It's going to be a bit hard not to get mouth drooling stuff with the combination of great gear, DARK skies and good processing skills..... But I guess we can put up with it ;)

[John Hothersall]

That is superb, the best I have seen of my favorite Hickson and to get 7331 in as well, detail is so tiny and sharp in those galaxies. Must be several hundred background galaxies littered about.

John.

[Leonardo70]

Congratulations Martin, an absolutely fantastic achievement. As someone has already said one of the best pictures of these 2 subjects. A lot of great details and galaxies and the apparent presence of IFN make the photo an absolute reference for me.

Best Regards,
Leo

[bokglob]

Doesn't get much better than that! A joy to behold :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

That is an amazing field. Mind blowing. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Great pairing that, an interesting framing but worth it to get it all in.

Galactic Cirrus showing through too, Kens recent effort on this area was quite similar.

Nice work

Mike

[Octane]

Goodness me, that is astounding.

One of the most beautiful images I have ever seen.

And, that swirly on the right, NGC 7331 -- WOW!

Top shelf, Martin. :eyepop:

H

[Stevec35]

Holy cow Martin! That's amazing. I can see lots more APODs and competition victories coming your way.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Gee whiz Martin you are really shining now.

A fabulous image. Makes me want to take my CDK17 down to my dark site for a while.

Greg.

[Lester]

That would have to rate as one of (if not the) best amateur astro images I have ever seen. Thanks for the view Martin. All the best.

[tonybarry]

Thank you Martin. An awesome image. May I ask about the equipment you used, and how long the exposures?

Regards,
Tony Barry

[seeker372011]

what a stunning image. Thank you for sharing.

[desler]

Thanks Martin. Spectacular view!

Darren

[alexch]

Wow! What a spectacular image!

Thanks for the view.

[Martin Pugh]

Why thanks!

yes, very please with the result.

Tony, the exposure and equipment details on this page.

http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.a u/Galaxies/NGC7331.htm

cheers!

Martin

[richardo]

This is definitely one of the best on this group that I've seen (also mentioned).
Staggering detail Martin, not only to Ngc 7331 but to the quintet as well.
So much going on with these interacting galaxies... also the amount of background galaxies that are being resolved, and, the galactic dust which is floating about.... so much to see in the high res version...

Just splendid... a whole new bar in amateur astro photography..
You must be so pleased with this setup!
This is a definite APOD

All the best
Rich

[Ross G]

Wow!

Martin, that is one of the most amazing galaxy photos I have ever seen.

Absolutely incredible!

Thank you.

Ross.

[DaveM]

That is just sensational! I love roaming around the image seeing all the smaller galaxies.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Another galaxy that does not occupy a single plane in space?

I would put my money on the idea that this galaxy's disk, far from being planar (as we would expect from the naive expositions in textbooks), is actually composed of several different rings (annuli) at various position angles.

In my view, this is also the case for the Andromeda Galaxy.

cheers,
bad galaxy man.

P.S. Radio astronomers are very accustomed to modelling the gaseous disk of a galaxy with a "tilted ring model" in which the overall galaxy is made of up several different rings/annuli at various angles to each other.

[RobF]

Gosh, just stunning. There are so many amazing individual objects in there that would make amazing images on their own let alone all together.

So good to have you actively posting again Martin. (Scarey, but but good :P)

[marco]

Amazing resolution Martin! I have some reserves on color balance (it looks a bit too gold/brownish to me with the blue part of 7331 a tad magenta) but never the less it is a remarkable image, one of the best on this object I have ever seen..

Marco

[Hagar]

Lovely Martin, What a rich field of galaxies, so many it is hard to count them all. Wonderful as usual.

[Octane]

Yes, but, what did you think of Martin's image?

[madbadgalaxyman]

That's a fair comment about my post, Humayun,
but I have absolutely no talent for describing an image in terms of its aesthetics, beauty, or technical excellence.
I don't look at images from the point of view of the photographer:
A tend to be interested in whether or not the image is deeper or sharper than others of the same object, in that my primary interest is in the actual structure and properties of galaxies.
From my perspective, therefore, an image is good if it reveals some galaxian structures that are not shown in other images.

From this peculiar perspective, Martin's image looks very deep, and I hope to have a careful look at it for details that are not found in other images; only then, perhaps, I can make a more informed comment about the quality of his image (which is obviously very high).

[Martin Pugh]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Marco - I tend to agree a little bit on the colour. I might just adjust that a little.

cheers
Martin

[madbadgalaxyman]

Martin,

I have never before seen the optically luminous streamer or tidal tail coming from NGC 7320 (in Stephan's Quintet) as clearly as it shows in your image.

What does this feature look like at maximum contrast and brightness?

As I briefly discussed in my contribution to the recent Leonardo70 thread about NGC 7331, there is little reason, in my view, to believe that this galaxy is physically associated with the other members of the Quintet.
(I believe that this is the current scientific consensus on this issue.)

NGC 7320 is at a closely similar redshift to NGC 7331.

Furthermore, your excellent image clearly shows that the tail coming from NGC 7320 is quite distinct from the other tidal material that is seen in the Quintet.

I have just contacted Travis Rector, who recently studied the Quintet with the Gemini Telescope, to ask him what he thinks of the features on your image.

cheers, bad galaxy man

[ I also mention (in case you haven't seen this reference) Arp's picture processing analysis of photographic plates of this field, in the abovementioned post ]

[LucasB]

Simply amazing! It's the sort of photo you can look around in for an hour at all the detail!:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Lucas

[TrevorW]

Crowded isn't it, a bloody fine image that, well done

[SkyViking]

My goodness, thats shockingly beautiful, simply stunning! I think this is the best galaxy image I have ever seen from an amateur astronomer. Congratulations Martin on such a great result. There is so much detail everywhere and the colours are fantastic, and lots of interesting tidal streams and background galaxies. Just amazing.
Thanks for sharing this.

[TinyBlueDot]

Absolute Top Shelf imaging Martin, so much detail, reminds me of the Mandelbrot images where the deeper you go into it, the more you still see - galaxies everywhere. Love it.

John