Fornax A or NGC1316

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F4.53, ATK-16HR, Astrodon LRGB filters. LL RGB.

L=3hrs 40m in 10min subs.
RGB=6x5min each.

This is quite a bright galaxy pair at similar distance of 60 mil lyrs. My first lenticular galaxy thought to have merged with other galaxies and consists of old stars with no HII regions but with typical dust present. I used Strongmanmike's image as a guide and it looks like this one needs plenty of subs to show the density waves. Second galaxy has a blue ring of starburst owing to minor interaction with bigger Fornax A. Like Mike I thought I would compare dust with HST result to see what I managed to get.

Would have been interesting to have tried IR filter so see if it revealed more dust?

Thanks for looking.

[gregbradley]

Another phenomenal image.

Shell structure, the dust - amazing.

Greg.

[Alchemy]

Impressive once again,

[SkyViking]

That looks impressive John, a great image. And interesting how that second galaxy also looks rather complex.

It would also seem that Fornax A, M82, and Centaurus A all have something in common, in that their overall structure appear related. But that's just my guess.
Thanks for sharing this image.

[Lester]

Wonderful hi-resolution view John. Thanks for the view.

[Hagar]

Another ripper John, I love the unusual targets you keep coming up with. Simply stunning as usual.

[Paul Haese]

Your're getting a bit a reputation here John. This is yet another image which is well processed and has such great detail. I am now on the lookout for your name in the current list, knowing that you will produce something really nice.

[LucasB]

Beautiful image with great detail as usual with your photos! I agree with Hagar - really enjoy the targets you select. :thumbsup:
Lucas

[strongmanmike]

He he :thumbsup:

Thought for a moment they were mine :lol:

It's fun pushing top notch optics huh?

A bit more FL would help even further here I recon.

HST comparisons...ah sigh..a man after my own heart :P

Great stuff John,

Mike

[Greg Bock]

Thanks for HST comparison John, I do it quite frequently for my images, and I am always amazed at how much more detail I become aware of once I compare. The comparison process always forces me to look harder at my images, and as a result I see more detail and features in them. ( along with all the flaws, of course!)

Having said that, I am also constantly amazed at how much detail of objects can be extracted these days compared to only a few years ago by amateurs using digital techniques and processes..we are very lucky!


Great work.

[strongmanmike]

Totally agree Greg, it is a worthwhile exercise.

Mike

[Stevec35]

To say the least John you have really been cooking with gas lately. Great image!

Cheers

Steve

[John Hothersall]

Well thanks for the comments much appreciated. Sculptor and Fornax has been an eye opener will all the large exotic galaxies there are and the Hubble comparison does focus the eye as Greg says, areas that looked like perhaps noise were in fact faint dust patches.

I would love to try 3.2 meters fl with adaptive optics but really need to have an observatory to shelter from the breeze, when we move house soon I will look into it. I am processing NGC253 atm as weather has been windy for 3 weeks, hopefully Spring weather won't be as bad as last year?

Regards, John.

[Gem]

Wow!
Nice image and good choice of object. :)

[madbadgalaxyman]

Excellent work, John!

Oddly, this galaxy is not quite an elliptical and not quite an S0.

A lot of merger products have the same paradoxical quality.

The "ripples" or "waves" or "shells" that are not spiral arms are always a diagnostic of galaxies that have undergone merger or accretion activity. There are quite a lot of these galaxies about.

cheers, Robert

[atalas]

Wonderful result John!

[Ross G]

An amazing photo John.

Thanks.

Ross.

[Nortilus]

Truly amazing pics. Its shots like this that make me want to get into astrophotography so much more...

[marco]

Excellent pictures John, I am always amazed by the amount of details you are able to record in your shots, you are for sure using a good optics and I suppose imaging from a good seeing place, however I see a great hand in processing the image to get to such results. Kudos to you!

Clear Skies
Marco