Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
Thanks Ross.
The outer edges visible in the third image apparently extend into the tidal radius of the galaxy and has a surface brightness of around 33.0 mag/sq arc second.
Steven |
G'day there, SJ,
if confirmed, that is a very impressive diffuse-object detection limit, even when compared to the detection limits of long exposures with big telescopes that are published in the professional literature of astronomy.
It would seem that you are also imaging fainter than most of the "ultra-deep" exposures that are increasingly finding their way into the IIS astro-imaging forum.
In the literature during the first decade of the 21st C. , I recall that some of the "pros" found it challenging, in their imaging of diffuse objects, to get an adequate signal-to-noise ratio even at a surface brightness of 28 V magnitudes per square arcsecond, so I am still in need of further convincing regarding your extremely faint surface brightness limit.
But if the various structures detected in your image of Carina are confirmed, it is consistent with the facts that you could well be doing better than everybody else at bringing out ultra-low-surface-brightness details in galaxies.
As yet, I have no absolute proof of this assertion of the superiority of your imaging and image-processing techniques, but I note that professional astronomers still have to struggle to get really clear images of the inter-galaxy (intracluster) Diffuse Optical Light within clusters of galaxies, which is known to be at 26.5 to 32 V magnitudes per square arcsecond.
Certainly, if you can image the very outermost regions of galaxies to these ultra-faint limits, and you can display the images at high contrast, there are going to be a lot of interesting and unusual detections in your images!
cheers,
Robert
P.S.
I am trying to think of some dwarf galaxy specialists who would be interested in your image and in your imaging techniques (I have them somewhere in my files). Also, some of the members of the 'Intracluster Light community' might be interested in your imaging techniques.
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Just "for fun and profit" :
Image of M86/M84/M87 region to 28 V magnitudes per square arcsecond.....
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