Centaurus Chain and Virgo Galaxy clusters

[gregbradley]

This is a reprocess of 2 earlier images. I could see areas for improvement when looking at it again.

Both taken in nights of fabulous seeing at my dark site using my TEC180FL and FLI Microline 8300 and Tak NJP mount and a MMOAG guider setup.


http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/134312755/large regular size
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/134312755/original large version
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/134561691/large regular size
http://upload.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/134561691/original large version


Greg.

[Peter Ward]

I suspect you may have lost some very faint stuff...as I'm guessing you may have applied smoothing to the sky background, but I'm just picking nits....

Very tidy result :thumbsup:

[alpal]

Two beautiful photos -
thanks for posting them.

[Rigel003]

Wonderful images Greg. I just read the original thread which I missed back then. I love the Centaurus cluster, especially the two face-on spirals.

[ballaratdragons]

May I drool now?

Beautiful!

[Ross G]

Two great galaxy photos Greg.

So much detail in both.

Thanks.

Ross.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Very nice work, Greg.

This part of the Virgo Cluster is my favourite northern field, as so much is going on in this part of the universe.

Your image shows, very well, the gigantic difference between M84 and M86, both of which are usually thought of as being "elliptical-like galaxies".

M84 is a classified, at face value, as a classical elliptical, having regard to the observed shape of its two-dimensional outline and also because of its observed very-rapid falloff of surface brightness with increasing galactocentric radius.

In contrast, M86 starts with what looks like an "elliptical-galaxy-like" (spheroidal) component in its inner regions, which then gives way in its outer regions to one or more extremely faint disk- or halo- like morphological components that stretch an enormous distance outwards into the field. The "halo" of M86 actually extends much further into the field than it does in your image, when it is imaged at great depth.
(M86 was often classified as a mild S0 galaxy on the old photographic plates, as the classifiers could see some small trace of a second component outside of the inner spheroidal component)

The M84+M86 field looks very strange when imaged very very deep, for instance here are some UK Schmidt images;
a deep image and a very very deep image (the second image was, I seem to recall, made from several stacked Schmidt films by David Malin) ::

114147

114148


Now here is a very very very deep image of the M84/M86 field , by J.C. Mihos and Paul H. Harding of CWRU. This image goes down to an Extremely Low surface brightness of 28th V magnitude per square arsecond:

114149

In this image, the very-extended luminous halos of the galaxies are seen to merge with the intracluster (inter-galaxy) light that is found within the Virgo Cluster!
Yep, there are plenty of stars sitting out there in between the galaxies of the Virgo Cluster.......

[gregbradley]

Thanks Peter. I mainly upped the black point as I had it brighter before and looking at it again it was distracting.



Thanks for that.



Yes it a very interesting field of unusual galaxies.



Thanks very much for the compliment.



Cheers Ross. It was a few nights of excellent seeing and the setup was working beautifully. One of those nights when everything came together.

I had several of them a few weeks ago. The seeing at my home observatory was divine. I have several images I haven't processed yet from that period.

[QUOTE=madbadgalaxyman;846600]Very nice work, Greg.

This part of the Virgo Cluster is my favourite northern field, as so much is going on in this part of the universe.

Your image shows, very well, the gigantic difference between M84 and M86, both of which are usually thought of as being "elliptical-like galaxies".

M84 is a classified, at face value, as a classical elliptical, having regard to the observed shape of its two-dimensional outline and also because of its observed very-rapid falloff of surface brightness with increasing galactocentric radius.


Thanks for that. So I should do some more exposure on this to pick up that faint halo structure. Thanks very much for pointing that out as I often look for galaxy targets where I can pick that sort of thing up.

Greg.

[RobF]

Fascinating subjects and great images Greg. Wouldn't it be great to be 10 times closer to some of those large Centaurus spirals. Very M101'ish one of them. Love that very circular galaxy too.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Greg said:
Thanks for that. So I should do some more exposure on this to pick up that faint halo structure. Thanks very much for pointing that out as I often look for galaxy targets where I can pick that sort of thing up.

Madbadgalaxyman says:
I have seen a few amateur CCD exposures that go as deep as Malin's "stacked UK Schmidt films" images (which is what the second image in my post is). So it ought to be possible for you to pick up more of the strange and oddly shaped halo around M86.
I think that there are also some strange low-contrast shells or ripples in the light of M86, which are obvious in some images......these might be the relics of a merger with a lower mass galaxy.

[Paul Haese]

So many cool galaxy types visible in your images Greg. Each image makes me wonder if there are beings looking back and wondering if there are being looking back? Excellent repros.

[Bassnut]

Clean and sparkling Greg, excellent.

[Tom Davis]

A lovely version of the Markarian Chain. Nicely done, Greg!

Tom

[gregbradley]

Thanks Rob. I was happy with the Virgo one in particular as it is quite low in the north.



Definitely on the to do list now. Thanks very much for the info!



Yes exactly. Thanks Paul.



Thanks Fred. It was a night of great seeing. Plus I was using a MMOAG on my TEC for the first time and the guiding was way better than normal.



Thanks Tom. Good to see you back. I look forward to your future amazing images. I use some of your images as a reference for some objects.

Greg.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Greg wrote, regarding deeper images of the weird LSB details in the M84/M86 field:
Definitely on the to do list now. Thanks very much for the info!

Bad galaxy man sayeth:
Malin made a lot of very deep images by means of co-adding multiple UK Schmidt plates, and while it is still not easy to go this deep, some amateurs now do. Many of his very deep images of galaxies can be found at:

http://www.aao.gov.au/images
(Just click on "Deep Galaxy Images" and you will find the many very deep galaxy images by Malin)

There is a lot of very weird stuff going on here, and much of it now potentially imageable by very persistent amateurs.
Many of these strange phenomena have never been investigated properly by professional astronomers......
so imaging ultra-deep on galaxies is definitely one way for amateurs to find new things that have not been seen before!!

[multiweb]

Real awesome field Greg! Top shelf. :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

I hate it when Virgo and Leo rear their heads all I end up doing is counting galaxies why don't you put a Wally in there for fun and then we all could do a where's Wally instead :P

Nice images Greg :thumbsup:

[Jay-qu]

These are amazing images, well done and thanks for sharing.

[Stevec35]

Great job on these Greg. The detail you managed to get is amazing.

Cheers

Steve

[DavidTrap]

Inspiring Greg - I should get my VC200L sorted and go chasing some fields like this! Just Need to work out a bracket for the Robofocus and get her collimated.

DT

[allan gould]

I really love this composition Greg as its different from what is normally presented while the depth is brilliant.

[LucasB]

Beautiful images Greg! I love the Centaurus chain, I kind of has that hubble Ultra deep field feel about it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Lucas

[gregbradley]

Thanks for your help is guiding where to image, its helpful.



Cheers Marc.



Yes some fields have large numbers of faint background galaxies.




Cheers Jay.



Thanks Steve. It was a couple of nights of great seeing as well. Plus the MMOAG on the NJP/TEC180 helped.



Go for it. That scope is capable of some great shots.



Thanks very much Allan.



I was surprised by what came out as well.

I'll have to take my TEC180 next time to my dark site.

Greg.