M61 Swelling Spiral Galaxy

[EzyStyles]

Lovely Swelling Spiral galaxy taken this morning. 5 x 2 minute exposure shot.

Managed to capture a very faint galaxy in the background circled in red. How i know that it is another galaxy from the poor pixelated was from a google search on a hubble image of M61 and comparing star to star :)

Does anyone know what galaxy that is? Hope you guys like my pic.

[[1ponders]]

Boy don't you ever sleep Ezy. Whew!

Ok have a look at the attached Starry Night screen shot. Your unknown galaxy looks like PGC3096124. Check the orientation of the three stars that line up and overlay your galaxy shot then check the orientation of the screen shot. It looks about right.

[Starkler]

I think its great how Ezy churns out so many whilst many others work all night to produce one image :lol:

Perhaps Ezy needs his own subsection in the imaging forum :lol:

[Gama]

Some of us just get set in one night. Then image the next !.

[EzyStyles]

Many thanks ponders. I have starry night, can't seem to find it :screwy:

If i have an imaging session, i normally spend the entire night (8:30pm - 5:00am) . Yes.. i know full time job :P Just want to fasten my skills atm. I'm still a newbie (started end of January) till now. Two months ago I didn't even know the difference between a newtonian and a dob and what polar align?? lol .

[EzyStyles]

Can't let the planetaries take over this forum now can we :lol: :lol: Deep space posts are catching up!

[PhotonCollector]

Hi Ezystyles,

see you are still going hard at it with all that imaging. Great Work!

Here's a chart from that Aussie made astronomy software called STAR Atlas PRO. You can see from the chart (oriented nearly the same as your image) that the Galaxy is PGC-1268982. I've also attached another image (low res.) from STAR Atlas PRO with the galaxy marked.

Galaxy PGC1268982
B-Magnitude:18.14
Size: 0.35 x 0.13 arc-min.
PA: 48º
Also catalogued as 2MASXJ12220873+0429352

best regards
Paul Mayo

[PhotonCollector]

Oh, I forgot to mention on the STAR Atlas PRO chart you will see small red-crosses. These are Non-Stellar Objects (non Stars) which may also be displayed as stars rather than red-crosses (preference setting).

Paul

[tornado33]

I should point out that some of those red crosses are as faint as mag 19 or more!
Scott

[[1ponders]]

there ya go Ezy. Paul's the man should know.

Sorry but I was a couple of million light years out :P :)

So Paul that would make the larger galaxy in the upper left of the image you posted NGC4301 and the one directly across the galaxy in the lower right corner is PGC3096124? I can't read the letters and numbers on your chart.

[PhotonCollector]

Hi 1ponders,

When you view the chart in your web browser, if it's like my web browser, then the image will automatically be resized by Windows(R) to fit the browser window and so the labels become difficult to read.

A button icon should appear at the bottom right of your image, if you click on this then the image will toggle between actual size (you will be able to read the labels) and fit-to-window size. Or you can drag the chart fromyour web browser onto your desktop and then open the image.

Anyhow, I increased the chart font size and attached another chart.

Paul

[ving]

well captured ezy

[[1ponders]]

so Paul where is PGC3096124 in your chart. Is it the same as NGC4292?

sorry for hijacking your thread Ezy, but I'd like to get the image orientation worked out.

[PhotonCollector]

Geeday 1ponders,

Yeah sorry Ezy, we don't mean to hijack your thread, but I love identifying faint fuzzies in astro images.

In the prior charts I had a setting called [Smart Labels] enabled so it only labels the larger astronomical objects. Of course if you click on it, you'll get a screen full of information that includes the object catalogue name.

Here is another chart which shows the PGC3096124 galaxy as the galaxy arrowed at right.

Arrowed at left is what I believe to be the actual galaxy in Ezys image.

Wow this is fun. :thumbsup:

Paul Mayo

[EzyStyles]

no worries guys be my guest :) Thanks both Paul for trying to identify the object. Great M61 pic you posted Paul. Very very nice. I noticed there is another galaxy in your pic nearby (top left hand corner). What galaxy is that?

[PhotonCollector]

Hi EzyStyles,

That image is downloaded from STAR Atlas PRO via the Digitized Sky Survey, its not my image.

Galaxy at top left is NGC 4301.

cheers
Paul

[[1ponders]]

It is fun.

Paul, would you have a wider field photo of M61 showing NGC4292 as well to help orientate for the smaller galaxies. It's interesting how different programs represent the same object. Going by SN I would have assumed the PGC3096124 was a fairly "substantial" galaxy. Yet in your program it appears to be less significant than PGC1268982.

[PhotonCollector]

Yeah that's right in STAR Atlas PRO (SAP) PGC3096124 is reported to be 0.1x0.1 arc minutes in size, so it is fairly tiny. Yet PGC1268982 is larger at 0.35x0.13'

Yes of course, SAP can get images for any location in the sky (doesn't even have to be a deep sky object). I had to compress this image a lot to load it onto IIS (original image is 1.8Mb).

best regards
Paul M

[EzyStyles]

Thanks for the pic Paul. It helped me jigsaw puzzle one of my pic. :thumbsup: now i know what it is.

[[1ponders]]

;) cheers Paul and thanks :thumbsup: