Apologies for a repro, but I got a few more hours of data on the antennae resulting in lower noise and enabling more saturation (maybe overdid this, but it's still nothing like as fluoro as some on the net). Seeing for the extra data was only average, so there was no increase in available detail.
The sky was around 20 mag/arcsec2 overall, so this is not very deep. Tried a heavy stretch which pretty much obliterated the core - it's really ugly, but shows some of the detail in the star streams.
images all cropped to fit. #1 software binned 2x2 to show context, #2 crop on core in full resolution and no compression, #3 messy heavy stretch at 2x2 bin to show star streams. Thanks for looking. Regards ray
Mate, that really is a sensational image of this pair Ray certainly shows that seeing can be a blessing and the saturation is just right IMO (coming from a flurofile that is )
I agree with Mike that really is a sensational image. If I got that from the CDK17 I'd be stoked.
Terrific colour and detail and stars are lovely and tight and nice colours, a great background. But the star of the show is the galaxy itself which usually does not come up with that level of detail very often.
That's a lovely looking image Ray. Two of my favourite galaxies and a beautiful version.
Graz
thanks Graham - it is one of my favourites as well
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Mate, that really is a sensational image of this pair Ray certainly shows that seeing can be a blessing and the saturation is just right IMO (coming from a flurofile that is )
Mike
thanks Mike - yep, its all about seeing
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
I agree with Mike that really is a sensational image. If I got that from the CDK17 I'd be stoked.
Terrific colour and detail and stars are lovely and tight and nice colours, a great background. But the star of the show is the galaxy itself which usually does not come up with that level of detail very often.
You're punching above your gear weight there.
Greg.
really appreciate your comments Greg. I was very pleased with how it turned out in the end.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atalas
Top stuff!
Thanks Louie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astro_Bot
Great stuff.
thanks for that
Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
Great image Ray.
Steven
Thanks Steven. thanks also for your very clear explanations on the inflation thread.
Blue knots at the end of one of the tidal tails are much more prominent than usually seen in other images.
These are very tough objects....so really good work on your part!
That's a great image Ray, and nicely processed too! That's been taken with your new scope (250mm f/4 Newtonian), correct?
Thanks David - yes, this is the new 250f4 Newtonian. It's CF, which is so much more user friendly than the old steel scope was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman
Blue knots at the end of one of the tidal tails are much more prominent than usually seen in other images.
These are very tough objects....so really good work on your part!
Thanks Robert. some interesting dynamics on display here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
Great stuff, Ray! A nice improvement over the original which was already fantastic
Thanks very much Rick
Quote:
Originally Posted by cazza132
Beautiful work - love it! I'd love to be able to have a crack at some of these deep sky targets someday.
Thanks Troy. yes, it's good fun when the seeing is OK and you can see some detail in the raw images.
Tidal Dwarf Galaxies in the tidal tails? - I say not!
Quote:
Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman
Blue knots at the end of one of the tidal tails are much more prominent than usually seen in other images.
These are very tough objects....so really good work on your part!
G'day Ray,
From time to time, objects that are supposedly "Tidal Dwarf Galaxies" (= TDGs) get into the news, as investigators investigate the plausibility of small dwarf galaxies forming in the tidal tails of merging/interacting galaxies.
Obviously, as can be seen from your image and also in images of many other tidal tails, dwarf-galaxy-sized objects that are very rich in (very luminous) O and B stars, definitely do form within tidal tails, as there is (often, but not always) plenty of gas in the tails.
However, it is not likely that these small Tidal Dwarf Galaxies contain dark matter, and dark matter content is the necessary condition for the usual type of galaxy. (which is why a globular cluster is not a galaxy)
[[ for instance, the smallest known galaxies contain the merest smattering of 10s of thousands of stars, but each of these galaxies has a strong indication of the need for 100s of times as much matter in some unknown form, in order to keep the system gravitationally bound ]]
There has never been any rigorous proof that TDGs actually do exist, though this doesn't stop people from studying the galaxy-scale blue knots found in some tidal tails.
I personally do suspect that TDGs don't really exist, and that the blue knots in tidal tails should not be called galaxies
(like the search for the legendary four-leafed clover, and similar to the situation when you spend years searching the fields for blue-coloured roses, I suspect that searching for TDGs may not be a fruitful research area)
However, here are two references which give information about TDGs.
Both of them seem to be by people who know what they are talking about, but I have not assessed the information here in any detail:
What a beautiful Antennae image, really nicely processed and showing some impressive detail. I like the saturation too, it's certainly not overdone for my taste
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr
the quality was just too high for anything other than a Newtonian
From time to time, objects that are supposedly "Tidal Dwarf Galaxies" (= TDGs) get into the news, as investigators investigate the plausibility of small dwarf galaxies forming in the tidal tails of merging/interacting galaxies.
Obviously, as can be seen from your image and also in images of many other tidal tails, dwarf-galaxy-sized objects that are very rich in (very luminous) O and B stars, definitely do form within tidal tails, as there is (often, but not always) plenty of gas in the tails.
Whatever the case, the knots in tidal tails are interesting and extremely challenging objects for astro-imagers.
cheers,
Robert
thanks very much for the info Robert - have not yet read the refs, but will.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr
I thought so, the quality was just too high for anything other than a Newtonian
... actually, a design that has been around for over 300 years probably has something going for it and modern CCs have fixed the single major shortcoming. Running at around f4 sure keeps imaging time manageable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyViking
What a beautiful Antennae image, really nicely processed and showing some impressive detail. I like the saturation too, it's certainly not overdone for my taste
Ah yes, Newtonian power!
Thanks for the feedback Rolf
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Hothersall
Detail like that is amazing.
John.
thanks John - appreciated
Quote:
Originally Posted by E_ri_k
Awesome Ray, great image You have captured loads of detail in there!
Erik
Thanks Erik. thankfully, seeing was pretty good for part of the period.
)
... actually, a design that has been around for over 300 years probably has something going for it and modern CCs have fixed the single major shortcoming. Running at around f4 sure keeps imaging time manageable.
