Galaxy gems in Antlia - close up of core detail added
Just got back from a 3 night cruise on the Pacific Pearl - what a blast and fantastic experience (t'was a comedy crusie...man ), already deciding on the next cruise
Anyway...last Tuesday night I managed a few hours of darkness on a super hot night, the FLI was a godsend again as it managed to juuuust hold -30C while it was still hovering just under 29C ambient when I finally started imaging at 10.45pm - sheesh!
I imaged the beautiful nearly face on spiral galaxy NGC 2997 in Antlia - a reasonably small to modest sized and faintish galaxy (8.5' X 6.5' surface brightness 22.5mag/sq arc sec). Not as much exposure as I would have liked so I composed a sythetic Lum from the RGB (all binned 1X1) and added that to the megre 80min of Lum data I gathered.
IT looks pretty lonley sitting in a 1.6deg X 1.6deg field but of course..if you look closely the field is full of many distant galaxies!
See the 100% resolution crop of NGC 2997 in Antlia HERE
See deep inside the galaxy core HERE approx 5' X 5' FOV and even deeper in HERE
And of course..I have put together the usual album of 100% full frame to highly zoomed in close up variations Here
Can someone identify what looks like a ring galaxy visible through the galaxy arms..? - see super zoomed crop in the album.
Man I had fun on the cruise, maybe I will trade in my astroimaging a little and go on a few more cruises
MIke
Last edited by strongmanmike; 07-02-2011 at 07:19 PM.
Very nice Mike! Especially considering you're a bit light on with data. I like the faint fuzzies of course but, as you might expect, I prefer the full res crop . For such a small object you've certainly got some great detail going on in there too. Good one!
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
... maybe I will trade in my astroimaging a little and go on a few more cruises
Very nice Mike! Especially considering you're a bit light on with data.
Yeees, tell me about it , with these hot short nights and without an observatory (oh the travelling) ...I need a bigger faster scope
Quote:
I like the faint fuzzies of course but, as you might expect, I prefer the full res crop . For such a small object you've certainly got some great detail going on in there too. Good one!
Yeh, some more exposure would have shown them even better plus the seeing was very average..., we know what is possibkle with our six inchers when the seeing cooperates huh?
Quote:
BLASPHEMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Juuust kidding...although the skies were pretty dark 30 miles off shore
Sensational Mike, Love floating around in the full frame, lot's happening there!
Very nicely presented.
Darren
Cheers Darren
The full frame in the album is only 50% res too, 100% was just to big and the galaxy field isn't that dense really, lots of tiny winny almost stella faint fizzies but not many good little ones though. I posted the full frame version mainly just to show the field size, for a sense of scale
Great shot as usual Mike. Just for info I was browsing through the equipment credits at the bottom of the image, and wanted to see info on the light box you have. Astro handy website seems to have done a runner. Are they still in business?
Lovely shooting Mike! Not a huge amount of luck with the little ring galaxy - overlaid a heap of galaxy catalogues in Aladin and the nearest I could come up with was GALEX J094558.7-311304, but it doesn't seem to be a perfect match. Bit beyond me to access the GALEX databases from their site, but they are online: http://www.galex.caltech.edu/
You were brave doing HaRGB knowing you travel for your setup. It turned out well though. You got some nice detail there as usual more than I would have expected. Why did you decide to do Ha instead of luminance?
I'll have to take some Ha as well to bring out the core more.
Widefield of most of the whole Cluster (or what would fit on the chip)
and a crop showing the main area of the cluster
Antlia Galaxy Cluster in the constellation Antlia.
ED80, Canon 350d, 5 x 15min @ 800iso, INCR, stacked in Registax 3, processed in PhotoShop CS.
Great field Kenny, something about masses of faint fuzzies in a vast field that a specy colourful neb just can't match huh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_K
Lovely shooting Mike! Not a huge amount of luck with the little ring galaxy - overlaid a heap of galaxy catalogues in Aladin and the nearest I could come up with was GALEX J094558.7-311304, but it doesn't seem to be a perfect match. Bit beyond me to access the GALEX databases from their site, but they are online: http://www.galex.caltech.edu/
Funny, tyhe little ring galaxy is not that faint really..? Maybe it's part of the galaxy after all...don't think so though
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Very nice Mike. It is a great target.
You were brave doing HaRGB knowing you travel for your setup. It turned out well though. You got some nice detail there as usual more than I would have expected. Why did you decide to do Ha instead of luminance?
I'll have to take some Ha as well to bring out the core more.
Greg.
Ooops sorry, missprint t'was a LRGB ...some Ha might be good though. Yeees travel.....I know I harp on but fair shake of the sauce bottle and suck of the sav sheesh, I recon I will go mad, really need a bigger faster scope huh? ...and an observatory
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
Wonderful as usual Mike, I just love these galaxy vistas. Can't wait to get my new camera so I can take some proper deep fields
Thanks Rolf
Yes the new camera will be an epiphany for you
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Beautiful galaxy.
yes she is Marc...nearly as beautiful as the lagoon
This is a lovely galaxy and one I think can be hard to get accurate colour to.
You've done a great job I think with the amount of time spent on it.
I only looked at the 100% crop.
Yes, the lovely astrograph you're expecting will do wonders to these smaller gals... for sure!
Mmmm, sounds like a booze cruise Mike ... takes me back when I lived on the Goldie in '81 as a 19 yo... our cruise was supposed to go right up to almost Moreton Bay, it was for The Golden girs (bikini models)we only got a few K's up from Labrador docks, the captain locked himself in the cabin and turned the boat around due to people having... mmm... toooo much fun I won't elaborate they were the days
With all your social commitments, great you even got out to your site.
This is a lovely galaxy and one I think can be hard to get accurate colour to.
You've done a great job I think with the amount of time spent on it.
I only looked at the 100% crop.
I almost never look at other images of what I am processing before I process, I always wait until after I have finished and then only sometimes do I have a surf looking at the variations, I have to say I usually get pretty close to the better images (well what I recon are the better ones anyway ) so I imagine they are doing the correct G2V'ish typ'a thing ...sooo I must be doing something right and my screen must be a good'un . The best ones of 2997 I found were by Rob Gendler and the Capella Observatory in Namibia - higher res than mine as they are longer FL and much bigger scopes but the colours look similar.
BTW, Look at this super close up of the core - only 6" and 1300mm FL remember
Quote:
Yes, the lovely astrograph you're expecting will do wonders to these smaller gals... for sure!
slightly shorter FL actually (1140mm vs 1300mm) but much faster and twice the aperture
Quote:
... takes me back when I lived on the Goldie in '81 as a 19 yo... our cruise was supposed to go right up to almost Moreton Bay, it was for The Golden girs (bikini models)we only got a few K's up from Labrador docks, the captain locked himself in the cabin and turned the boat around due to people having... mmm... toooo much fun I won't elaborate they were the days
Hmmm a naughty boy once huh?
Quote:
With all your social commitments, great you even got out to your site.
Friggin hell I tell you, maaaaan, I deserve a bleeding medal I recon!
), already deciding on the next cruise 
nice work
I haven't got the full depth in Star Atlas Pro 
, with these hot short nights and without an observatory (oh the travelling) ...I need a bigger faster scope 
