alan4908

The image below shows a variety of galaxies located in Virgo, the largest three (NGC 5364, NGC 5363 and NGC 5360) are about 50 million light years distant. Fainter galaxies can also be seen in the background which lie at much greater distances, eg the Lenticular galaxy NGC 5373 is estimated to be in excess of 500 million light years distant.  

At the centre of the image is the grand design spiral galaxy NGC 5364. The two spiral arms are seen and contain a large number of bright blue stars. Closer inspection reveals that the arms are asymmetrical and it speculated that this distortion may be due to the gravitational interaction with the companion galaxy NGC 5363, shown near the top centre. This latter galaxy shows a dust lane perhaps created by a past merger. The view of the centre is distorted by the presence of a bright foreground star, close to the core, which is actually within the Milky Way. The smallest of the triplet is the Lenticular galaxy NGC 5360 which does not show any tidal tales.

This LRGB image was acquired by my Esprit 150 and represents about 17 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:40, R:23,G:20,B:20 x 600s all at -20C.

NGC 6979 is part of the Eastern Veil Nebula and is a supernova remnant about 2400 light years distant.  The bi-colour (HOO) narrowband image below was captured with my Esprit 150 and represents 19 hours integration time.

Alan

On 03/05/2023 at 14:49, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Lovely shot. Hope I get a chance to image it with the 6" Schmidt-Newton some day

Thanks for the comment Michael  - it's definitely worth a go but be warned that it's a small object to image .

Alan

Here’s a galaxy that you don’t often see on SGL...

Discovered in 1786 by Herschel, NGC4051 is an intermediate spiral galaxy with an inclination of 40 degrees and about 80,000 light years wide. A notable feature is the bright nucleus which is lens shaped from which two main spiral arms emerge. Many star forming (HII) regions, which appear as pink regions, can also be seen.

The nucleus is thought to be powered by a supermassive black hole of about 1.7 million solar masses. In 2007, researchers found that the nucleus was emitting a hot jets of chemical elements including carbon and oxygen. Surprisingly, it was found that these originate very close to the black hole, about five times Neptune’s orbit.  Although only a small fraction (2 to 5%) of the accreting matter is ejected at high speed, this dust and gas is expected to form nebulae which themselves are the breeding ground for new stars and planets.  The researchers concluded that black holes are not only destroyers of life but may be also a source of elements that make life possible.

The LRGB image below has a Ha blend into the red channel and was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents about 16 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:27, R:6, G:11, B:6 x 600s; Ha:15 x1800s.

20 hours ago, MartinB said:

Wowsers, that is a superb image.  These samll distant galaxies are very difficult to capture and process effectively. This is stunning!

Glad that you liked it Martin 

Alan

20 hours ago, gorann said:

Great image Alan with lovely detail! Have you used Blur XTerminator on it? If not, it may not only bring out even more detail but also fix the minor star issues that @ollypenrice noted.

Thanks Goran. 

Yes, I used BlurXterminator on the image, an amazing tool. I cannot actually see the the minor aspect ratio issues with the stars but one of my software tools  (CCDInspector) informs me that they are present to a higher degree than I would like.  Further analysis leads me to the conclusion is that I need to be more rigorous in eliminating poor subframes before integration 

Alan

On 07/03/2023 at 08:47, wimvb said:

Excellent image. The galaxy's structure, as well as the strong blue colour of the ring suggest recent star formation. In fact, there are many smaller Ha regions along the outer ring, like a ruby necklace. I would definitely add some hours of Ha data to bring those out, if I were you.

Thanks for the comment Wim. Yes, some Ha would be good, those HII regions are very faint in my data and dominated by the blue. 

Alan 

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Superb. Let me say that twice.

There's an elongation in your stars (and presumably in the galaxy as well) which is, in my view, a trivial distraction but which you might want to address. Guiding? Optics? Tilt? Fixable, I'm sure.

Olly

Thanks Olly ! - I shall look into the issue  

Alan

Located in Pisces, NGC 660 is an unusual polar ring galaxy about 45 million light years distant.

Polar ring galaxies have two distinct systems, the host galaxy and the polar ring. It is believed that it was formed a billion years ago after it collided with another galaxy, or, perhaps, it started as a disk galaxy and then collected additional matter from a passing galaxy.

The outer ring is tilted 60 degrees relative to the central galaxy and contains many red and blue supergiant stars with many newly created stars. The central region shows detailed structures in the dust lanes and has a significant amount of star formation. It is also thought to harbour vast amounts of dark matter. In 2012 a very high energy outburst near the galaxy’s centre was detected, possibly from a black hole.

The LRGB image was taken by my Esprit 150 and represents about 14 hours integration time.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:33, R:11, G:18, B:19 x 600s.

14 hours ago, tomato said:

Brilliant result, one of the best NGC 2903 images I’ve seen.👍🏼

Thanks ! - I think it is an improvement on my previous attempt...... 

Alan

16 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

Fantastic image, Such depth and detail.

Thanks - I was pleased how it came out.

Alan

2 hours ago, MKHACHFE said:

Absolutely stunning mate.

Thanks !

On 23/02/2023 at 12:47, Catanonia said:

That is cracking and some dedicated time 23 hours !!!!

Nicely processed as well.

Thanks - it did take a very long time to acquire. 

On 23/02/2023 at 13:13, ollypenrice said:

An astonishing amount of detail in what is a small target. The Ha has added a lot, too.

Olly

Thanks Olly - yes, Ha definitely helped along with BlurXT ! 

Alan

Located in Leo, NGC 2903 is a bright spiral galaxy about 30 million light years distant with a faint central bar. The two spiral arms are mainly populated by numerous blue stars and pinkish star forming regions.  Dust and gas dominate the inner structure which also contains large HII regions. One of these appears as a “knot” near the centre of the galaxy and is designed NGC 2905.  

To the right of the image, the irregular shaped companion galaxy PGC27115 is seen. The background also contains several smaller galaxies which are much more distant, some of these have been annotated by Pixinsight.  

This LRGB image contains a Ha blend into the red channel and represents an integration time of 23 hours and was taken with my Esprit 150.  To increase detail, I decided to merge my Lum data with my 2017 acquisition.  

Alan

NGC 2903

NGC2903 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:59, R:16, G:20, B:12 x 600s; Ha: 10 x 1800s.

Here's five images from 2022 all taken with my Esprit 150 and Trius 814.

Alan

M81

IC 348

IC 405

IC 1454

Fleming's Triangle Wisp

On 16/02/2023 at 10:03, MartinB said:

A beautiful image Alan

Thanks Martin !

Alan

9 hours ago, gorann said:

Very impressive image Alan! I guessed that BlurXT had been involved but obviously it had great data to work with.

Thanks Gorann - yes, the data was not too bad, I'm also fortunate to have quite dark skies in this part of the UK.

7 hours ago, tomato said:

Yes, a great image of a challenging galaxy👍🏼

Thanks ! 

Alan

On 12/02/2023 at 15:38, Dan_Paris said:

Very detailed view of a photogenic galaxy, nicely done!

Thanks - BlurXterminator helped with extracting the detail ! 

Alan

Located in Pisces, M74 is a face on spiral galaxy 30 million light years away. Due to its very low surface brightness, it is also known as the phantom galaxy. Blue stars and red ionised hydrogen regions dominate the outer arms, whilst older yellow stars are prevalent towards the core. Gravitation forces from two nearby satellite galaxies, slightly distort the spiral structure. In recent years, several supernovas have also been detected.  Finally, have a look in the background for tiny distant galaxies, some of which display ring structures.  

This LRGB image represents 15 hours and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:39,R:18,G:19,B:15 x 600s.

18 hours ago, CCD-Freak said:

Great image....This one is going on my "To Do list"

Thanks for the comment John 

Alan

On 03/02/2023 at 15:21, symmetal said:

That's a great image, and one I don't think I've seen before. Very colourful. I'd call it the 'Fruit Bat Nebula' as it's looks to be eyeing up the raspberries. 😊

Alan

Thanks !  - yes, I'm surprised it hasn't been imaged much, particularly as it is very colorful - I presume this is  due to its small apparent size.  

11 hours ago, Roy Foreman said:

Like the colours. Very nice image.

Thanks Roy 

7 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Now that is a piece of work! Absolutely splendid, giving us something few of us have seen before despite its lying in a much-photographed constellation. It's also beautifully done. Hats off!

Olly

Thanks Olly.  This is also my first image where I've used BlurXTerminator - the second AI version is very impressive. 

Alan

NGC2282 is located in Monoceros and is a rarely imaged and understudied object.  The area consists of an isolated molecular cloud that contains a variety of interesting objects such as reflection nebula, a young star cluster and star forming HII regions. It is believed that the cluster contains a significant population of pre-main sequence stars with an estimated age of 2 to 5 million years.

The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 13 hours integration time (which took me over a year to accumulate in the sunny UK !)

Alan

In 1962, Beverly T Lynds catalogued the dust cloud that separates the North American Nebula (NGC7000) from the Pelican Nebula (IC5070).  These dust tendrils leak into the glowing ionised hydrogen gas that form one of the largest emission nebulas in the summer sky. This region is often captured with narrowband imaging. However, since I prefer natural looking colours, I decided to go for an LRGB image with a Ha blend into the red channel.

The image below represents 18.5 hours integration and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:22, R:18, G:16, B:13 x 600s. Ha:14 x 1800s all at -20C.

On 11/11/2022 at 10:15, fireballxl5 said:

Lovely image Alan.  Which camera do you use? 

Regards,  Andy

Thanks for the comment Andy.

This image was captured with my Starlight Xpress Trius 814.  When paired with my Esprit 150 it gives 0.7 arc seconds per pixel. 

Alan

NGC 3953 is a barred spiral galaxy located in Ursa Major and is a member of the M109 galaxy group. It’s about 55 million light years distant with a diameter of 100 000 light years. Observed from Earth, it has a high angular inclination, 29 degrees from edge on, with a bright active nucleus and inner dust lanes.  The spiral arms contain young bright blue stars, whilst the pinkish regions indicate the presence of ionised hydrogen and star forming regions.  Two supernova’s were also discovered in 2001 and 2006.  

The background also contains a handful of more distant background galaxies which I’ve labelled in the annotated version of the image. Interestingly, the galaxy PGC2832088 identified by Pixinsight is not visible, so I presume it must be extremely faint.

The LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 17 hours integration time.

Alan

NGC 3953

NGC 3953 (annotated)

LIGHTS: L:38, R:20, G:22, B:20 x 600s at -20C.