Cosmic Embrace in Canis Major - The Wallaroo Galaxy Probe :-P
With some nice weather lately I decided to shoot this distant interacting galaxy pair in Canis Major.
Made famous by images taken with HST I though I'd give it a crack but with only 1120mm FL at my disposal I needed some good seeing...well...first night was below average, the second night was above average and the third and final session was crap...but luckily that was when I collected the RGB (phew thank god) ... sooo can't complain I guess but as usual I can only wonder what it would be like to image from a place with truly good seeing (all the time )
I kept the processng on the light side to hopefully better show the combined faint outer halo and extended spiral arm - come tidal tail (?) of NGC 2207, that both also show up nicely in high contrast negative..and as usual no darks, no flats and also no noise reduction or gradient removal was used...nor any >lasso tool>brighten to make something arbitrary appear from nowhere
NGC 2207 and IC 2163 are quite a distance away at 150 Million Lyrs so together they only cover approx 5' of sky, so extracting details is a challenge.
NGC 2207 is the closer of the two and you can make out her large extended arm passing in front of the slightly more distant IC 2163
AS usual here are a few variations to help reveal the subject
Great stuff Mike. A small dim pair but its come up quite well.
Good work.
Greg.
Yes, I was happy with it considering, it was certainly only seeing limited that's for sure, the guiding on night two was essentially perfect - hanging around 0.1pix average errors most of the night ...night one wasn't so good though buuuut I still used a lot of the collected data anyway to help suppress the noise... and last night well, it was basically pea soup (I started late and hadn't cooled the scope and mirror first), so I only collected RGB, the subs had lovely little round white marshmallows all over them
Beautiful work Mike, it's a truly gorgeous pair and your image certainly do them justice
Plenty of background galaxies too, it's a nice looking field!
I've imaged this pair on a couple of occasions before, they make a nice target. I even did a ToUCam version once
I still have to try them with the QSI and big scope though, perhaps next season
Beautiful work Mike, it's a truly gorgeous pair and your image certainly do them justice
Plenty of background galaxies too, it's a nice looking field!
I've imaged this pair on a couple of occasions before, they make a nice target. I even did a ToUCam version once
I still have to try them with the QSI and big scope though, perhaps next season
Thanks Rolf yes I was happy with the result ..now just need some consistent seeing (don't we all )
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpal
That's a top effort Mike.
What a fantastic result on a difficult target.
Yeah it was a bit of a test but that's pretty much why I attached the SX gear to the modset FL AG12 in the first place, so I could have a decent crack at some of these smaller targets and with 12" at F3.8 do it reasonably quickly and without darks or flats..mate, it's easy peasy imaging with these babies
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevec35
Nice one Mike. I've been contemplating this one myself.
Cheers
Steve
First M46 and her rotten egg nebula, now this??...aaah you stalking me
Brilliant image Mike. Can I try one through your finderscope again?
Thanks Kev ...come on over and who knows ...I think Steve Crouch might be having a go at these babies soon too and he's in Canberra also (not far from Mackay?)..maybe he can help you
That's very cool, Mike! Glad somebody is getting a few photons. The weather here has been rubbish, especially for someone without an obsy
Cool is good in this heat Yes the weather in your neck of teh woods is not so good this time of year huh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by marc4darkskies
That's a superb shot Mike! Nothing about it I don't like.
Glad to hear that...there is a slight miss registration noticeable across the top of the image, that I should fix.....but it isn't present in the centre of the image and at 55% it isn't that noticeable in the full frame so...
Quote:
BTW, I only look at your full res versions! 55% is a waste of my time.
It's just a fetish with you...there is medication for that
Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by allan gould
Really nice image Mike with great colour and resolution. Keep them coming.
Allan
What a tiny pair, at that focal length a real challenge.
Interesting reading about your processing, it always makes me think I'm introducing something that's not there with too much processing.
I guess doing a basic stretch, with some equalization in PS to use as a guide would be a good idea, what do you think?
What a tiny pair, at that focal length a real challenge.
Interesting reading about your processing, it always makes me think I'm introducing something that's not there with too much processing.
I guess doing a basic stretch, with some equalization in PS to use as a guide would be a good idea, what do you think?
Cheers,
Justin.
Cheers Justin, yes with the gear I have I am always looking for smaller targets to challenge my system with, I had 18 months of hefty CCD acreage with the ProLine on the AG12 and accumulated some nice results along the way...just going through a narrow field stage with her at the moment
The thing I don't like to see in an image is where a (usually) faint galaxy arm or section or outer halo or something like that has been simply lassoed and arbitrarily brightened, this is cheating in my books and is not accurate as it is the processor who is creating the shape and boundary of the feature, sometimes it is so obvious it makes me chuckle
Stretching and then using curves is ok but as soon as the processor traces around the area they are imparting their own take/shape on the feature or indeed creating something that isn't actually there (like a faint Jet ....no, no, just kidding, I didn't use Lasso )
its a great shot Mike - you seemed to have tortured every electron out of those photons to get that image!!! - nice colours and framing - heaps of background faint galaxies. one day when i grows up i might try something like this....... I am still in kindy playing wiht the sun....
Interesting Pair Michael, great capturing again
The two Galaxies, are they totally separate or actually colliding ? They look seperate to me, no hot spots in the collision areas either that is obvious ?
I read another web page, some guy thinks he can detect an effect of warping in the arms of 2207 at collision area, can quite see it myself, could be an older Image & new evidence has come to the fore ?
Great Subject and Image Mike
... sooo can't complain I guess but as usual I can only wonder what it would be like to image from a place with truly good seeing (all the time 
) 
buuuut I still used a lot of the collected data anyway to help suppress the noise... and last night well, it was basically pea soup (I started late and hadn't cooled the scope and mirror first), so I only collected RGB, the subs had lovely little round white marshmallows all over them 
its a great shot Mike - you seemed to have tortured every electron out of those photons to get that image!!! - nice colours and framing - heaps of background faint galaxies. one day when i grows up i might try something like this....... I am still in kindy playing wiht the sun....
