NGC4038 and NGC4039 - A collision of Galactic Proportions

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

Hi All,

The Antennae Galaxies, one of my favorite targets and I have been waiting awhile to try get this one.

I'm pretty happy with the result, I tend to find galaxies pretty difficult for various reasons, be it collection or processing, as I still have a fair bit to learn.

I found the tails to be extremely hard to figure out but there's enough there for me to be happy at least.

Anyway, hope you like it.

Image details:
Telescope: CDK 12.5
Camera: SBIG STT-8300
Composition: LRGB, 780:70:70:70. 16.5 hours total.

Astrobin:
http://www.astrobin.com/full/168338/C/

[Ross G]

Wow! A beautiful photo Chris.

I love the colours and detail.

So sharp.

Ross.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

yep -wow awesome work and processing the galaxies look great!

russ

[alpal]

Hi Chris,
at 73 degrees after midnight in Melbourne it looks like a good target.
Nice work.

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Gee that's a stunner. Nice work!

Greg.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Gee that central area is super Chris, amazing in fact, very well processed, almost looks like it doesn't belong to the rest of the image which is not bad but just not quite as good as the central bits... repro?

Mike

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Gee that central area is super Chris, amazing in fact, very well processed, almost looks like it doesn't belong to the rest of the image which is not bad but just not quite as good as the central bits... repro?

Mike

Cheers mike.

I think I know why..... I accidentally applied a histogram stretch against the stars as opposed to the rest of the image. I have reverted it and re-exported the image. Apart from that I'm not sure how to do much else to the background stuff. The raw data was pretty difficult to process, for me at least. Probably at my limits with this one.

[Paul Haese]

Superb processing to the central region. Great colour overall the image with good saturation. Excellent detail too.

There is a slight red cast to the back ground though. Other than that, this is a very nice image. Well done.

[RickS (Rick)]

Nicely done, Chris.

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Ross G

Wow! A beautiful photo Chris.

I love the colours and detail.

So sharp.

Ross.

Thank you, I was pretty restrictive with selecting subs, this helped to have a pretty sharp base image.

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

yep -wow awesome work and processing the galaxies look great!

russ

Thanks

Originally Posted by alpal

Hi Chris,
at 73 degrees after midnight in Melbourne it looks like a good target.
Nice work.

cheers
Allan

Thanks Allan, yes it is quite high at the right time. I had a few hours here and there of pretty good seeing, below 2".

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Gee that's a stunner. Nice work!

Greg.

Thanks Greg

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Superb processing to the central region. Great colour overall the image with good saturation. Excellent detail too.

There is a slight red cast to the back ground though. Other than that, this is a very nice image. Well done.

Thanks for the positive feedback Paul, much appreciated!
I can't see the red cast, but I do trust that it is there so I applied a blind ~15% cast reduction. I see no difference but my eyes are not great with reds so I assume it is now reduced a bit? Is there a graphical or numerical way to analyse this phenomenon? I have zero trust with myself when visually inspecting reds

Originally Posted by RickS

Nicely done, Chris.

Thanks Rick!

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

That central region is heartbreakingly good.

[DJT (David)]

Lovely image, Chris. The colours are great and the details are very good.

top job

[coldlegs (Stephen)]

Beautiful Chris. May I be cheeky enough to suggest that if you are not going to try to make money from the image that you submit it to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennae_Galaxies) as their idea of what a ground based telescope can see really sucks!!
Cheers
Stephen

[astronobob (Bob)]

Awesome Chris, check out that Stellar Bombardment, Literally fantastic
I commend you and those who not just capture some target at resolution, but also process it to the extent where the image comes Alive
Amazing photography ! !