Hi All,
I’m pleased to present my rendition of the Fornax Galaxy Group member -
NGC1365.
NGC1365 is a giant barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Fornax and a member of the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies. Many spiral galaxies have bars across their center, however few are so prominent as the one present in NGC1365. The location of young blue star clusters and pink HII regions in the dramatic spiral arms indicate a strong rotating density as they twirl towards the galaxy’s nucleus. The bright yellow nucleus is likely to contain a massive black hole. Astronomers believe the gravity field of NGC1365's bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, funneling gas and dust into the central star forming regions and ultimately feeding material into its massive black hole. NGC1365 is approximately 60 million light-years distant.
About the image;
Image is a LLRGB composite totaling 5 hours (L;120min;R:60min;G:60min;B:60min). Lum bin 1x1 @ 15min subs and RGB 2x2 bin @ 10 min subs. Image data was aquired using a RCOS 12.5”as part of the
www.global-rent-a-scope.com network. This galaxy requires a reasonably long focal length to bring out the subtle details. At ~2900mm, I think this clearly shows what is achievable. This is the first time I’ve not had to deal with gradients from this instrument – big relief. Don’t really enjoy working with gradients – who does? I was very surprised by the quality of the raw subs. I even managed to use the true Astrodon colour ratios of 1:1:1 for change <shock/horror!> (actually I used 1:1:1.2 to counteract blue extinction factor). To be honest, I was expecting vibrant colours, but obviously this is not characteristic of this galaxy. Sure, I could have push the chrominance harder to achieve this, but wanted to keep a natural/realistic feel. The image presented is a crop of a much larger field/image.
Image processing;
Rather simple processing on this object (as expected due to the quality of the subs – a pleasure to work with). All subs – dark/flat/bias calibrated, hot and dead pixel removal performed in MaximDL. All subs registered in Registar, then combined back in MaximDL using Sigma-reject. Chrominance combined in MaximDL and pushed out as a stretched tiff for processing in PS. Luminance ran through two iterations of deconvolution in CCDSharp, saved as tiff for processing in PS. In PS, stretched the chrominance using the Shadow/Highlights tool, layered the luminance. Luminance blend was set as 50% opacity so I could still manage colour flows. Image flattened, luminance layer applied again at 100% opacity, colours re-balanced. Highpass and noise reduction mask applied. Final colour balance tweaks, before adjusting levels. The only task I did differently that isn’t mentioned above was re-layer the chrominance with the blend option as colour. I then stretch the layer using curves to bring back some subtle colour tones that appeared to get lost in the LLRGB combination.
Well… I could not simply let the 1,000th post go by without delivering a “respectable” image to the IIS imaging community.
So I hope you enjoy the image as much as I did processing it!
Thanks for looking.
Clear skies, new moon – opportunities await.
Cheers