IC 2574 - not commonly known...

[Dietmar]

hi folks,
This time it is a privilege to present a very unusual and hardly known galaxy,...at least this is what I think, after searching for images on the web, taken by amateur-collegues...couldn't find many ...
well, this galaxy is quite huge (12.9 by 5.9 arc minutes) but brightness is extremly low!
the final result you will see is a collaboration between my observatory neighbourgh and close friend over more than 20 years Martin Winder and me.
Martin used his 16" RC f/6.5 (2" starlight instruments reducer) and ST 10 for image acquisition:
lum in 1x1 color in 2x2 bin.
He could take advantage of a couple nights with very cooperative environmental conditions in both, seeing and transparency.
he preprocessed the entire dataset (dark calibration, alignment, normalize and stacking); then I came into the play, having some fun and also a bit of a hard time processing L,R,G and B. it was a challenge, as the object's data was vaguely some 140 counts above the background...
end of speach - here is the result, guys:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com...74-martin.html
BTW:
hey - who has ever imaged that guy?...
contact data:
This would be Martin's website:
http://members.liwest.at/picard/

best wishes,

[jase (Jason)]

A great collaborative effort Dietz. Only 140 counts above the background certainly would have its challenges. Did I miss something...what were the exposure times. I would have liked to have seen a little more colour saturation, but that's a personal preference. Excellent work and thanks for sharing.

[iceman (Mike)]

Lovely image, Dietz. I love the knots of nebulosity and star clusters in the outside of the galaxy. Top work.

[Dr Nick (Nick)]

I said it before, and I'll say it again, I gotta love that galaxy, and I've never seen it before in my life. Awesome detail!

[Dietmar]

thanks guys!
I have changed a view things:

- added the image data
- reduced noise
- corrected color-imbalance due to color gradients.

please find time to check again:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com...74-martin.html

[iceman (Mike)]

A great collaborative effort.

A 16" RC! That would be nice.