ABELLS805 Galaxy Cluster in Pavo

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Cheers Phil and I completely agree. Under darker steadier skies now with this beaut scope I have become a bit of a galaxyphile

Mike

[Leonardo70 (Leonardo Orazi)]

Wonderful Mike .. i love this galaxies ...

All the best,
Leo

[cybereye (Mario)]

Mike,

I go away for two weeks and this is what you do. Fantastic!

Cheers,
Mario

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Very nice Mike! I almost missed this beauty, love everything of this image, color, contrast, subject.. well done

Marco

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Leonardo70

Wonderful Mike .. i love this galaxies ...

All the best,
Leo

Originally Posted by cybereye

Mike,

I go away for two weeks and this is what you do. Fantastic!

Cheers,
Mario

Originally Posted by marco

Very nice Mike! I almost missed this beauty, love everything of this image, color, contrast, subject.. well done

Marco

Aaaah my Italian mens club

Cheers migliori amici

Michele

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Aah yes, galaxy clusters! Wonderful image, there is so much to look at. Colours are great too, very well balanced. It's certainly an inspiring image Mike, very well done!

My imaging is somewhat on hold right now since it's been rather cloudy here at night lately - and Mr. Royce has notified me he finished the 12.5" mirror so I expect to receive it soon, just in time for the clear summer nights. Then I'll put the new OTA together and go galaxy hunting, wohoo!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by SkyViking

Aah yes, galaxy clusters! Wonderful image, there is so much to look at. Colours are great too, very well balanced. It's certainly an inspiring image Mike, very well done!

My imaging is somewhat on hold right now since it's been rather cloudy here at night lately - and Mr. Royce has notified me he finished the 12.5" mirror so I expect to receive it soon, just in time for the clear summer nights. Then I'll put the new OTA together and go galaxy hunting, wohoo!

Hi Rolo, thanks mate...dunno how you maintain the patience to go for long exposures liiike saaaay...120hrs?..I start of thinking, right! going to go looong on this one...then the weather gets cranky, clouds get in the road etc,...and after a few annoying nights...meah.. I get bored ee

Great news on the 12.5" ...an extra 0.5" over me now..?.. humf!

Mike

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Hi Rolo, thanks mate...dunno how you maintain the patience to go for long exposures liiike saaaay...120hrs?..I start of thinking, right! going to go looong on this one...then the weather gets cranky, clouds get in the road etc,...and after a few annoying nights...meah.. I get bored ee

Great news on the 12.5" ...an extra 0.5" over me now..?.. humf!

Mike

Hehe, yeah for sure you'll be left in the dust Mike, that 0.5" will give certainly me the edge. You'll probably notice the stars fading the very moment I point my mighty new photon grabber towards the skies.

Nah, but I'm certainly hooked on mega data, and I'll definitely try a similar project once I get the new scope ready. It's exciting to watch the data accumulate night after night, it was really quite addictive.

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Mike,

I have been having another look at your image of the IC 4765 galaxy cluster. Small galaxies here, but they are nicely seen in your image.

This is, for me, one of your very most interesting images, as this cluster is very very rarely imaged by anybody, and there is hardly anything known about it, even by the "pros".
(in fact, the galaxies in Pavo are the least known in the sky, judging from the tiny number of scientific papers written about them)

The halo of the giant dominant elliptical galaxy is not symmetrical, if I am correct in my interpretation of your image....
it seems to stretch outwards a lot further along the upper side of the major axis of this galaxy.

I don't know whether the extremely faint luminous background which I seem to see extending away from this galaxy is the intracluster (inter-galaxy) light or whether it more properly belongs to the halo of this galaxy.

There are a number of cases in the literature where the exceedingly faint luminous halo of a big elliptical in the middle of a galaxy cluster essentially merges, at some radius, with the intracluster light;
so the distinction may be somewhat academic.
( a good example of this is M86.....if you measure the total magnitude of M86 to successively greater radii, the total brightness of this galaxy just keeps on increasing.....there is no radius at which the magnitude stops getting brighter!!!)

[ The intracluster light in galaxy clusters is not unusual in terms of its composition, in that its light just comes from plain ordinary stars....but the stars belong to the cluster of galaxies rather than to any individual galaxy]

cheers,
Robert

I don't suppose that these giant Elliptical galaxies are the most exciting looking galaxies in the sky, but they are often the most luminous galaxies in the universe; some examples get two magnitudes more luminous than even the most luminous spiral galaxy.

They do have sort of subtle "layered" structure, sort of "onion-like", as has been very evident to all of us who have followed your NGC 5128 imaging project, in that the shape and position angle of one of these galaxies can change two or more times, depending upon the radius to which the galaxy image is displayed.

One of my favourite examples is NGC 6876, which has a centralmost or nuclear feature, surrounded by an oval distribution light, surrounded by a spherical distribution of light, surrounded by a probably-off- centre very-extended distribution of light. Some hint of this structure in these isophotes:

[trent_julie]

Mike,
The full frame is tops! An inspiration as per usual.

Trent

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman

Mike,

I have been having another look at your image of the IC 4765 galaxy cluster. Small galaxies here, but they are nicely seen in your image.

This is, for me, one of your very most interesting images, as this cluster is very very rarely imaged by anybody, and there is hardly anything known about it, even by the "pros".
(in fact, the galaxies in Pavo are the least known in the sky, judging from the tiny number of scientific papers written about them)

The halo of the giant dominant elliptical galaxy is not symmetrical, if I am correct in my interpretation of your image....
it seems to stretch outwards a lot further along the upper side of the major axis of this galaxy.

I don't know whether the extremely faint luminous background which I seem to see extending away from this galaxy is the intracluster (inter-galaxy) light or whether it more properly belongs to the halo of this galaxy.

There are a number of cases in the literature where the exceedingly faint luminous halo of a big elliptical in the middle of a galaxy cluster essentially merges, at some radius, with the intracluster light;
so the distinction may be somewhat academic.
( a good example of this is M86.....if you measure the total magnitude of M86 to successively greater radii, the total brightness of this galaxy just keeps on increasing.....there is no radius at which the magnitude stops getting brighter!!!)

[ The intracluster light in galaxy clusters is not unusual in terms of its composition, in that its light just comes from plain ordinary stars....but the stars belong to the cluster of galaxies rather than to any individual galaxy]

cheers,
Robert

I don't suppose that these giant Elliptical galaxies are the most exciting looking galaxies in the sky, but they are often the most luminous galaxies in the universe; some examples get two magnitudes more luminous than even the most luminous spiral galaxy.

They do have sort of subtle "layered" structure, sort of "onion-like", as has been very evident to all of us who have followed your NGC 5128 imaging project, in that the shape and position angle of one of these galaxies can change two or more times, depending upon the radius to which the galaxy image is displayed.

One of my favourite examples is NGC 6876, which has a centralmost or nuclear feature, surrounded by an oval distribution light, surrounded by a spherical distribution of light, surrounded by a probably-off- centre very-extended distribution of light. Some hint of this structure in these isophotes:
Attachment 152708

Yes I was intrigued by the stars/dust/halo structure component of this cluster too and how much is Milky Way Cirrus and how much is actually the big elliptical which appears to stretch right across the cluster..?

Mike

Originally Posted by trent_julie

Mike,
The full frame is tops! An inspiration as per usual.

Trent

Hey thanks Trent, glad you liked it

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Excellent image mate! I love these galaxy clusters and you gave this one the full glory it deserves

Also colors are splendid, I tried to find out some defects but could not

Clear skies
Marco

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yes I was intrigued by the stars/dust/halo structure component of this cluster too and how much is Milky Way Cirrus and how much is actually the big elliptical which appears to stretch right across the cluster..?

Mike

Thanks for displaying the high-contrast version of your image. The vast "halo" of this galaxy looks quite obvious here.

I think that the ultra-faint luminous extensions of the big elliptical are not cirrus. That's my opinion, anyway.

They don't look like cirrus to me, in fact they look more like a component of IC 4765 itself.

The surface brightness, and the falloff of light with increasing galactocentric radius, and the distribution, of this light seems to be distinct from that of the cirrus that is in this field.

It is pretty cool to see this galaxy extending so far across the cluster!

This appearance is not necessarily unusual for those galaxies that are dominant in their clusters, but it is generally very hard to actually get decent images of this vanishingly faint light stretching between the galaxies of a cluster.....
so all credit to you, Mike.

The velocities of the stars that are responsible for the ultra-faint diffuse light can be used to separate out those stars belonging to the galaxy and those stars belonging to the cluster; there is no other way of doing this.
It is normal to try to get spectra of planetary nebulae in the diffuse ultra-faint light, in order to figure out the velocities of stars in our line-of-sight.
(this requires a "beeeeg" telescope)

Here's one of my all-time favourite images, showing the ultra-faint inter-galaxy light in the Virgo Cluster.
I think I may have shown this one to you before, but perhaps some of the other IIS members would also benefit from thinking about this very weird image:

[Gem (Grant)]

Wow - that's a lot of galaxies! Love the full frame!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by marco

Excellent image mate! I love these galaxy clusters and you gave this one the full glory it deserves

Also colors are splendid, I tried to find out some defects but could not

Clear skies
Marco

Originally Posted by Gem

Wow - that's a lot of galaxies! Love the full frame!

Thanks for checking it out guys, did this one a while ago now

Mike

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman

It is pretty cool to see this galaxy extending so far across the cluster!

This appearance is not necessarily unusual for those galaxies that are dominant in their clusters, but it is generally very hard to actually get decent images of this vanishingly faint light stretching between the galaxies of a cluster.....
so all credit to you, Mike.

Cheers Rob, I do some strange things to my data and I know some roll their eyes at it ...but it's just so much fun to do in this modern age of sensitive digital imaging, lots of interesting things can be seen if one streeeeetches their data

Mike

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Cheers Rob, I do some strange things to my data and I know some roll their eyes at it ...but it's just so much fun to do in this modern age of sensitive digital imaging, lots of interesting things can be seen if one streeeeetches their data

Mike

Yeah,

I think that your approach of having a closer look at what new information you can get out of your data, shows that there is the potential for new discoveries in images of galaxies.

It is not easy to "decide what is real and what is not" on an image, at extremely low contrast and surface brightness. ( I am going to have to come to grips with some of the mathematical image analysis tools developed by professional astronomers if I am to prove the existence of some of the unusual things that I sometimes notice in amateur galaxy images.)

There is nothing easy about making discoveries in astronomy.....indeed, most professional astronomers don't exactly make lots of major discoveries in their lifetimes.
So the observational approach of having a really close look at galaxy images is as good as any for trying to find new and weird things in the universe......
"After all, it's a bloody big universe , and there are undoubtedly stranger things out there than you will find in your breakfast cereal box"


Best regards,
Robert

Have you contemplated Marco's deep image of the M49 field....what a busy field, and so much strangeness and interest in it. The great variety of objects makes it one of my current favourite fields.
(tidal distortions ; spirals ; S0s ; giant ellipticals ; galaxies with smooth arms and damped star formation; it has got the lot!)

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

Love that full frame Mike

[TimberLand (Justin)]

Mike,

Just copying what everyone else has said, Great Image.

I too am a fan of galaxy clusters and you have done this one amazing justice. Good to see the camera and scope fit well together, looks like a great combo with the OAG.

The comparison is good to show how good amateur gear has got these days, keep the inspiration coming.

Justin.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman

Yeah,

I think that your approach of having a closer look at what new information you can get out of your data, shows that there is the potential for new discoveries in images of galaxies.

It is not easy to "decide what is real and what is not" on an image, at extremely low contrast and surface brightness. ( I am going to have to come to grips with some of the mathematical image analysis tools developed by professional astronomers if I am to prove the existence of some of the unusual things that I sometimes notice in amateur galaxy images.)

There is nothing easy about making discoveries in astronomy.....indeed, most professional astronomers don't exactly make lots of major discoveries in their lifetimes.
So the observational approach of having a really close look at galaxy images is as good as any for trying to find new and weird things in the universe......
"After all, it's a bloody big universe , and there are undoubtedly stranger things out there than you will find in your breakfast cereal box"


Best regards,
Robert

Have you contemplated Marco's deep image of the M49 field....what a busy field, and so much strangeness and interest in it. The great variety of objects makes it one of my current favourite fields.
(tidal distortions ; spirals ; S0s ; giant ellipticals ; galaxies with smooth arms and damped star formation; it has got the lot!)

Faint things are my speciality...even if I am the only one who can see them

Yes marcos M49 field is rather busy, looks like a drop of dirty pond water under a microscope...strange weird looking galaxies everywhere

Originally Posted by E_ri_k

Love that full frame Mike

Thanks Erik

Originally Posted by TimberLand

Mike,

Just copying what everyone else has said, Great Image.

I too am a fan of galaxy clusters and you have done this one amazing justice. Good to see the camera and scope fit well together, looks like a great combo with the OAG.

The comparison is good to show how good amateur gear has got these days, keep the inspiration coming.

Justin.

Thanks Justin, not everyone is a fan of my work and display style and hey, that's cool I do like colour and just like to really look at my data and results and try and see things in it that would otherwise go unnoticed and I find this exciting and loads of fun.

Thanks again for your kind words

Mike