Here is my rendition of NGC 5101 and NGC 5078 - a face-on barred spiral teamed up with an edge-on. They are separated by a mere 800,000 ly and 5078 appears to be interacting with its companion, IC 879.
I started imaging this in 2014 just after I got my OS. I started with 4.5 hours of Lum and I've now augmented that with 90 minutes of synthetic Lum and 5 hours of RGB for a total of 11 hours integration (equivalent).
For the rest of you who'd like to cruise around and check out all the faint fuzzies in the frame, here is the full resolution version (as usual - <Cntrl + or -> to zoom in or out): http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/155783443/original
We'll that is just spectacular.
Perfect processing and great detail.
You got the vertical dust plumes.
I miss your regular images. I know you have been set back by weak seeing conditions
Which I well understand
Greg
Beautiful galaxy pair beautifully taken. Love the smaller galaxies behind the bigguns.
Thanks Kevin!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy01
Had to fire up the mac tonight to do this justice - so glad I did, it's one of the most beautiful galaxy fields I've seen, just wow, amazing!
Thanks very much Andy! Yes, a properly calibrated screen makes all the difference. On my phone the image looks black clipped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glend
Very nice Marcus.
Ta Glen!
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
We'll that is just spectacular.
Perfect processing and great detail.
You got the vertical dust plumes.
I miss your regular images. I know you have been set back by weak seeing conditions
Which I well understand
Greg
Cheers Greg! Yes, the average seeing was only fair so I was happy with the detail I achieved. It was even good enough to post full res! . I hope we can get a run of clear and stable skies during the dark part of the lunar cycle this month! I think I'll do a neb next so I can do some NB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pugh
Very nice Marcus. Some great detail especially in 5101.
Good job.
Cheers
Martin
Glad you liked it Martin. The detail doesn't quite compare with your APOD winning rendition but I was happy given the conditions and integration time.
An excellent shot Marcus, the contrast in galaxy shapes is quite beautiful and a good composition, I don't mind the black sky. Minor C&C...at the large size a little star elongation is noticeable, picky..? hey, cant see any decon artefacts ...aaand easily fixed ..otherwise, bloody lovely
Even with elongated stars, this is simply outstanding!!!
Oh, how I pine for focal length when I see images like this!
H
Cheers H! I should explain that I used data from early 2014 before I had refined my collimation - hence a bit of elongation. Anyway, I've now lessened this a bit so it's not as obvious (I hope).
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
An excellent shot Marcus, the contrast in galaxy shapes is quite beautiful and a good composition, I don't mind the black sky. Minor C&C...at the large size a little star elongation is noticeable, picky..? hey, cant see any decon artefacts ...aaand easily fixed ..otherwise, bloody lovely
Mike
Thanks a lot Mike! Glad you think it's a good one! As mentioned above, my 2014 data was before collimation teaks but I've now lessened the elongation a bit so it's less obvious (top right and right side and bottom left and left side. Any remaining elongation is not fixable without using star rounding (which I don't do!) or taking a lot of time fixing each star!! Now, you and H need to put your magnifying glasses away!
and worth all that time and effort, very nice. 
Moreover, I dislike bright backgrounds in deep space images
...aaand easily fixed ..otherwise, bloody lovely 
