Ngc1316

[Paul Haese]

This image is of Fornax A or NGC1316. It was on my to do list for about 5 years. It is a visually intriguing object. I really like the interactions of dust and stars from previous mergers and the way the current merger is shown. To add to that is the many back ground galaxies at various distances.

The image contains 18 hours of integration time. I would have liked more but I have been getting some gradients on the western side of the meridian and so have been trying not to image too far into the west at present.

Click here for larger image.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Agree Paul that this is certainly a visually intriguing field. Quite unusual features in both foreground galaxies. The variation in colour in the foreground stars sets off the image nicely as well.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Rodney. It's a real bugger to get in the enter too. Trying to get a nice guide star for the AOX required offsetting it quite a lot. I found that there is a shell out near the bright stars too, but it is very faint.

[atalas]

Another awesome shot Paul

Whats the gradients on the west from?

[RickS (Rick)]

Very cool field and nicely processed, Paul. Tough competition on this target. There are a few very deep renditions around.

[Bart]

This is good! Great framing, great colour and detail lovely stars/spikes and not oft seen. Please submit for an APOD, I think.

[gregbradley]

You got the core incredibly well. Perhaps a bit too long a focal length for this one as its quite wide with all its distorted arms. But all those detailed background galaxies really add something to this image. Quite spectacular really.

Greg.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Very nice Paul, the central galactic regions are well resolved.

[Somnium (Aidan)]

that is just soo damn good, well done !

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Ok, ok, photon overdose from Paul this week! Deep stuff going on here...

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for commenting.

Originally Posted by atalas

Another awesome shot Paul

Whats the gradients on the west from?

Thanks Louie, there are lights at Goolwa which is about 12km to my south west. A little further south west are Middleton, Port Elliot and Victor Harbor. All those towns are causing some light pollution to the night sky. Its a pain and it will only get worse with the push to urbanize these towns. Our town is trying to obtain dark sky recognition which should help reduce the spread of lighting but I think it might come too late.

Originally Posted by RickS

Very cool field and nicely processed, Paul. Tough competition on this target. There are a few very deep renditions around.

Yeah its a tough customer this one, but I enjoyed the challenge. I think I really need double the integration to at least compete with Rolfs image. If I made mine as bright as his I was not happy with the amount of noise present in the back ground. However, I am currently doing a wide field of this object which is well up and over the deeper integration times of others. So far I have collected 50 something hours of useful data. I am hoping to pick just a bit more up in the next lunar cycle to finish off the data collection. I had hoped for 100+ hours but the cloud just did not want to co-operate.

Originally Posted by Bart

This is good! Great framing, great colour and detail lovely stars/spikes and not oft seen. Please submit for an APOD, I think.

Thanks Gray, I have submitted the image but I doubt it will make APOD. Still one has to try.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

You got the core incredibly well. Perhaps a bit too long a focal length for this one as its quite wide with all its distorted arms. But all those detailed background galaxies really add something to this image. Quite spectacular really.

Greg.

Thanks Greg, this is a bit of a crop due to the wonky composition. Finding the right guide star is a pain with AO sometimes. I got most of the outer arms but there is one to the north of the image that I cut off by due to the guide star position. If I had a better position I think the image would look more proportional. Though as Gray pointed out above, some people really like that sort of composition.

Originally Posted by SimmoW

Ok, ok, photon overdose from Paul this week! Deep stuff going on here...

I suppose 18 hours is getting to the deep end and I was remarkably surprised at all the tiny specks of light that are within the back ground field. I think if I put in about 100 hours just on this, some of those specks might get very bright. Perhaps I could collect more next year.

[allan gould]

Another masterpiece, Paul. All I can do is look!

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

A very fine image Paul - nicely done!

Marcus

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Another masterpiece, Paul. All I can do is look!

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

A very fine image Paul - nicely done!

Marcus

Thanks guys.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Great framing and lots of interesting objects to explore. Maybe a tad too much blue on some of the background galaxies?

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

The super-faint entwined halos are miraculous and completely convincing. Superb work, Paul.

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by Slawomir

Great framing and lots of interesting objects to explore. Maybe a tad too much blue on some of the background galaxies?

Thanks Suavi. Yeah could be a bit too much saturation overall I suppose. That would push the back ground galaxies too blue. I'll take a look at it and see what I come up with. Maybe less fluro looking then.

Originally Posted by Placidus

The super-faint entwined halos are miraculous and completely convincing. Superb work, Paul.

Thanks MnT. It is a really interesting pairing and their merger and the previous mergers really make an impact in my opinion. Mostly the sole reason for imaging it for me. The core detail was just the icing on the cake.