NGC 1316 Galaxy Deep Field - Sidonio'd he he

[strongmanmike]

Here's another Wallaroo deep special :D

This time I had a few things against me, namely the moon which I had to wait to set before starting, thus cutting imaging time down, in the end I had to collect the colour data when the moon was up :doh:

As a result of the moon it took two nights to gather the 5.5hrs of data. The first night was pretty reasonable seeing but the second night was very windy and this took its toll and softened all my night two data :mad2: In the end I chucked some subs but not having the luxury of a permanent setup yet, I am miserly with my chucking :rolleyes: :lol:

Once again I have gone for depth over pure aesthetics (ie a tad noisy) but it's not too bad..besides, look at the faint details, what a messy twisted galaxy this is...must have an interesting history?

Anyway... here it is :thumbsup:

Full Frame colour (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146908568/original) ** Check out the Superman galaxy at the very bottom of the image :thumbsup:

NGC 1316 (Fornax A) close up (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146961360/original)

High contrast B&W (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146915999/original) to show the full extensions of NGC 1316 and Milky Way Cirrus

Comparison with UK Schmidt (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146915984/original) to show the extreme depth achieved

Idiot with many layers on (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/146916820/original) to brave the icy wind :screwy:

This is fun.... :) not the icy wind though...

Mike

[TrevorW]

The number of galaxies in that field is amazing, nicely done,

[allan gould]

You are beginning to make me seriously jealous, seriously. :sadeyes:

[strongmanmike]

:lol:...probably...actually no, the strong wind on night two elongated the stars in most of my subs particularly the colour data :mad2: not toooo bad though, considering my scope is completely unprotected and on a slight rise :doh:

Mike

[h0ughy]

WOW, simply blown away by the level of deepness, well done Mike you are really going to take lots of great shots from there

[alexandre]

WOW !!

Hello Mike

Another wonderful image, I like!!: Thumbsup:
The treatment is tres well, and the sharpness is magnificent!!

bye!
@lex;)

[dvj]

Nice Mike, very nice. :thumbsup:

[Larryp]

Lovely image, Mike!

[Ross G]

A great looking galaxy photo Mike.

The detail is amazing.

Ross.

[multiweb]

Looks excellent. Love the fields and colors. Very cool pic. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[nandopg]

What is that Mike ?? Simply stunning, very deep and very well processed. One image to be proud of.
You are right, what strange history this galaxy must have !!

The image with you and your setup also looks great.

Thank you very much for sharing,

Fernando

[alexch]

What a great deep image! As usual, the processing and colours are exceptional!

NGC1316 is one of the strongest and largest radio-galaxies in the southern sky and is believed to have consumed a spiral not so long ago -- that is where the dust lanes in its core supposedly come from ( http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat118.html )

[Stevec35]

Very nicely done Mike. I haven't seen an image of the NGC1316 field that good in a long time.

Cheers

Steve

[astronobob]

Awesome, & an Interesting Field Mike, also inspiring as this humble duck and entry level gear would like to try capture it just to see if can get the slightest wiff of the tiny buggas : ) Prob not tho worth the try. kinda dig distant background galaxies !
Thanx for sharing :thumbsup:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Some nice detail Mike!

Your new site must be pleasing.

Cheers,

Justin.

[marco]

Wow Mike, what an incredible image! It is on my todo as well, almost complete the collection of RGB but still missing the Luminance... but now where is the point for me to go ahead with such an unreachable result in front of me ? ;)

Seriously mate you got an amazing image there, you deserve all the accolades and more for this. Now, please rotate the OTA so the spikes have the same orientation of the UKS' so can start puzzling who's who :D

:thumbsup:
Marco

[Bassnut]

top Work Mike, different, nice to see you back in the game.

[Leonardo70]

Hey Mike ... this is an Ultra-Fantastic-Deep image .... :eyepop:

Congratulations,
Leo

[whzzz28]

Amazing. Simply amazing.

That AG12 is really performing :eyepop:

[RickS]

Great image, Mike! Galaxies galore :D

[Tom Davis]

Another beauty, Mike!

-Tom

[marc4darkskies]

Very nice Mike. Love the colour processing here - looks spot on. I guess you don't have gradients any more eh? :) The depth is great!

Cheers, Marcus

[gregbradley]

Fantastic image Mike. Now we get to see how terrific your scope really is. Its very impressive.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Ah yes, sorry bout that :sadeyes: ;)



Thanks Houghy, hopefully my incessant complaining about the skies over Newcastle is a thing of the past :)...still more in the tank too, remember the second night of data for this image was compromised by serious wind :)



Thanks Alex



Glad you liked it John, this scope has more potential too.



Cheers Ross, even with the compromised data used the result was surprisingly good



Cheers Marc, not too sharp this time? ;)



It is an incredible looking galaxy, usually elliptical type galaxies are boring but not this one.



I Alex, yes I was aware of NGC 1316's history, bit like Cen A really.

Mike



It's not imaged that much really, it's really only interesting if you can reveal the complex outer shells I guess..?

Mike



Hey go for it bob, a challenge is always worth it regardless of the outcome, I am sure you will pick up plenty :thumbsup:



Pleasing indeed Justin :D



Thnakyou so much Marco, I always knew I was being hampered by the sky at my last place, it is very satisfying to be finally able to take the sort of deep images I was always hoping for and not in exposures measured in days but only hours :thumbsup:

Oh, I am sure your effort will be excellent as usual but perhaps I have given you something to challenge at least ;)



FRED?? :eyepop:...I love it when you pop up and comment on one of my images, you are like litmus paper, if you say it's good...then it must be :D



Yes she is a great piece of kit, forget exposures measured in days, single night deep images are here finally :thumbsup:



Yeh there's a few ;)



Thanks Tommy :)



Well actually, because I had to resort to collecting the RGB in the moonlight, I did have some gradients :sadeyes:... in the end though it was manageable but you are right, particularly when I am imaging West of the meridian, strong gradients are a thing of the past :thumbsup: There is more in this OTA yet, the night two data here was obviously compromised by the strong winds but I used it none the less, so the stars will only improve and the resolution increase...exciting times still ahead :thumbsup:



You are right, I was starting to doubt the potential I knew was there, it is nice to finally be vindicated and as I've said to a few above, there is still room for improvement, on a good steady night and protected from wind this scope will kick serious R's ;)

Mike

[avandonk]

Not only are your images very good Mike but you also explain what they are really showing. I must take a leaf out of your book and do more about explaining what my images are showing that is new or more clear. It is self evident to me but is lost without reiterating it.

It is just not enough to say 'here it is enjoy'. A full explanation of FoV and important 'new' details or really dim stuff that only the 18" Schmidt or four metre telescopes could show with a bit of a real push in the past. A four metre telescope really helps with the reciprocity failure even of hypered film.

A modern state of the art sensor does not have this problem.

I look forward to seeing what your system can do when permanently installed in your observatory.

Bert

[strongmanmike]

Cheers for the kind words Bert.

Just in these first two images from Wallaroo it is very clear to me what this scope is capable of. The improvement will come from removing wind disturbance and if I get more good seeing as well...well?.. the sky will be the limit...so to speak :P

Mike

[RickC]

Another wonderful image, it's very interesting to browse around these deep exposures
Good luck with your new dark site

Richard

[multiweb]

No this one's just right (like the cereals). :) It's personal preference really more than anything else. :P I thought the detailed core against the blues on the sculptor was a little sharp but then again it's not a soft looking galaxy like this one.

[ourkind]

What a great image to explore, I love the Superman Galaxy NGC1341 according to my maps, very few images of it on the web, you should crop and tag it as it's the best I've seen! :thumbsup:

Love your work, we're all very fortunate that you've relocated and enjoy taking and sharing these images! :D

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Richard



Know what you mean Marc :thumbsup:



You're welcome Carlos, wait until I am able to devote more time to each image and I am out of any wind, things should really get interesting then :thumbsup:

The Superman galaxy is very cool, huh?

Mike

[atalas]

Wonderful work Mike!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Big Louie :thumbsup: can't wait for next new moon :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Really cool looking image. Object is well defined. Colour is good. Finally have yourself somewhere to gather data.

[David Fitz-Henr]

Great deep field Mike! The colours look nice and natural as well - you must be getting better weather there than I am here in Sydney!

[iceman]

Wonderful image Mike, you must be thrilled!

Congrats on getting back to the joy of imaging.. I'm still some way off :)

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Paul, yes the euphoria hasn't worn off yet, it's still like a dream (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147003522/original)



Thanks David, the weather here is excellent, plenty of clear weather, only the moon has made me relax and the realisation that there is not as much pressure to take advantage of any clear sky as it is all in my own backyard now :thumbsup:



Yes thrilled is a good word, I have been hanging to get this astrograph (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/147003522/original) under good dark skies and so far it hasn't disappointed :)

Mike

[Paul Haese]

It will not I am betting. I have had my little dream for 4 years and I still love the place. I wish it had more land but it is dark and has great seeing. Cannot wait to live there full time. Just have to convince the Mrs to let us live there. Yeah right Catie live in the country.:lol:

[SkyViking]

Simply superb imaging there Mike, I love these deep galaxy fields :) And Fornax A is one messy galaxy for sure, it seems to be splashed out all over the place.
Great depth and processing, and the colours are beautiful too. Very well done.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Rolf

It is steadily becoming the age of fast Newtonians with aperture ;)

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Just reprocessed...only slightly, got rid of the noise and a few other minor cosmetic improvements....

All the same links

Reeeeally looking forward to next New Moon :thumbsup:

Mike

[DJT]

Great image Mike, could look at this for hours trying to do the count.

Congrats on the move to your dark site!

[gregbradley]

Ah bit by bit we are turning you into a noiseophile!

Nice improvement although I did not find the earlier noise objectionable.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Think you mean Noiseophobe :lol:

Well I agree with you I didn't find the original noise level (ie no noise reduction) objectionable either, in the first instance I just wanted to make sure no tiny little galaxy was smoothed over.

Now I wanted to improve the aesthetics a little without wiping any faint fuzzies or stars so I was very careful with the noise reduction when I applied it and under close inspection when blinking between the two versions it seems no tiny faint stars or galaxies have been wiped :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dave, I haven't looked forward to a new moon as much as this next one, for a long time :)

Mike

[rogerg]

Spectacular :)

F/3.8 .... Mmmmmmmm

... Slight edge distortion creeping in... Can't ask for perfection when such a large FOV at f/3.8 :)

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Roger

Well you can...just costs more money :lol:

It is a 2.5 deg diagonal field at 1.57"/pix ;)

I think I could still tweak the corrector spacing and maybe collimation a tad, the rest is image plane tilt and flexure, not sure I can ever eliminate the last two 100% with this OTA design, it is already acceptable to me but once I get her permanently under a dome (soon) and have more time, I will play with that corrector spacing and maybe I can shim something...?

Mike

[rogerg]

2.5 degree, yes the enormity of the task is not lost on me :) I would be happy with your current situation, considering all, unless it can be tweaked of course :). No comparison to my mass produced 12" struggling with its little ST8 at f/10 :)

[David Fitz-Henr]

Yes, the corrector / chip spacing is quite sensitive, and the technical specs by some of the manufacturers leave a lot to be desired. I've found that collimation can be a bit tricky as well as you can't just rely on laser collimators to get it right; that's why the classic star test is recommended, but even then the standard visual star test at the centre of the field won't guarantee pin-point stars to the corners of a large field. I am still tweaking this for my own scope; I have used the laser collimation tests to get close, and then I have fine collimated based on the appearance of stars in the corners of test images that I then take. I then use the laser collimator again to see where the centre of the paraboloid is to simplify future collimation. When I spoke with Mark Suchting he commented that the centre of the paraboloid moves around the geometric centre of the mirror by about 3mm or so during final figuring (correct me if I've misquoted you, Mark) which makes sense and accounts for the fact that a simple laser collimation using a centre mark doesn't guarantee perfect collimation. The other thing that I've realised out of this is that having defined the centre of the paraboloid and collimated the primary accordingly, that the secondary also needs to be recollimated on the same spot or some image tilt may be noticeable (I'm still doing some testing on this but the clouds aren't co-operating at the moment). Finally, with these mid/large newtonians I wouldn't necessarily assume that any "flex" is all in the way the camera is supported; the optics themselves can't be superglued in place (well, unless you want severe astigmatism!) and may have some slight play (for me probably a limiting factor in using an external guidescope for longer than 15-20 min exposures). Eg. if the silicone supporting the secondary mirror is too thick it may tilt slightly under the weight of these larger secondary mirrors. ... anyway, food for thought ...

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Dave, I'm with ya.

Some things there I need to do, just been reluctant given I have to set up and put away each session :sadeyes:...haven't wanted to waste too much sky time. This is just quick Catseye collimation and I am away...it'll do for now :thumbsup:

Mike

[stevous67]

Very enjoyable to look at Mike!

Cheers,

Steve :thumbsup:

[Fabiomax]

Absolutely fantastic, Mike! Wich corrector you use with the Newton?
Bravissimo!
Fabiomax

[gregbradley]

[QUOTE=strongmanmike;910048]Think you mean Noiseophobe :lol:

Yes indeed! That's funny. I wrote that without looking up the definition!

That's great noise reduction when you can remove noise without affecting faint signal areas. Very expert.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Hi Fabiomax

It is an Orion Optics AG12, made in the UK with their own corrector design based on the Wynn corrector see (scroll to bottom to see the corrector) HERE (http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/AG/agrangeand(ota)t.html)

Glad you like it :thumbsup:

Mike

[strongmanmike]

[QUOTE=gregbradley;910668]

As you know I am indeed not scared of noise. To me it is rare that noise reduction isn't obvious. Many great galaxy images, even by some big names, show the blended noise reduction quite clearly and you particularly see this most plainly in many DSLR images taken in summer. I often leave a bit of noise in to save detail too..but in this case after being initially happy with the slight noise I worked on it in the end and was careful not to impart too much, it helps when the signal is good in the first place and even on such a faint field 260min Lum with 12" at F3.8 under a dark sky helps.

Mike