Here's a galaxy you probably won't have seen before

[broadsword]

Below, please see my latest pic of....galaxy NGC 4214 in Canes Venatici. You may not have seen it before, infact I can't find another picture on SGL, and a Google image search yielded only one example on the first couple of pages.

So why image such an obscure, dowdy object? Well, the simple answer is I didn't think I had... on one of several celar nights capturing half a dozen galaxicies in Canes Ven. and Ursa Major, I thought I would break the monotony of spirals and go for NGC 4449, an irregular but quite colourful galaxy in Canes Ven. That's what I'm pretty sure I put in the Skyscan handset anyway...when I got it processed and did my ususal comparison to posted images on the web, none of the background stars matched, and after quite a bit of research I found a match with 4214. Now, I've never heard of the latter, and it isn't in my notes, so I haven't a clue how it got there. Unless I was being tlelpathically controlloed by aliens from 4214, the only other explanation is that there may be some mixups in the Skyscan database? Heven't been back in the repeat it yet....

[broadsword]

Apologies, the aliens seem to have got to my spelling too.....

[Gina]

Nice image - not seen that one before - well done

[broadsword]

Thanks Gina, was quite pleased with it from 40 x 120s ISO 1600 subs and my basic imaging kit....

[andrewluck]

The galaxy looks more like 4449 to me than 4214. The bright line of stars down the centre is quite distinctive. Bit of a cosmic train wreck really .

Have you plate solved the image using Astronomy.net?

Once you have a solved image then you can load it into a tool like Aladin http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/ for easy identification of what's in the image.

Cheers

Andrew

[mdstuart]

No that is 4214...I logged it visually in March 2009...Very nice bright object easily held with direct vision. Thanks for sharing. Mark

[mdstuart]

http://martingermano.com/N4214.htm Is a good pic of it. Mark

[mdstuart]

Actually your pic is better!

[broadsword]

Mark, thanks for the kind words. Mine has come out a bit blue, I get this a lot using Pixinsight and a big saturation boost.

Andrew, that recognition software looks good, I'll give it a try.

Anyone think there may be something in the thought that the Skyscan database has some wrong entries?

[andrewluck]

Yes, I'll concur after a closer look. While they lack the visual attraction of grand spirals they are both very interesting objects.

How are you doing the colour calibration in PixInsight?

Andrew

[sologuitarist61]

Great image - whatever it is!!

[broadsword]

Hi Andrew, I follow Harry's tutorials pretty closely in PI. The last step is to do a saturation boost using curves transformation and a luminance mask. He shows quite a high curve boost. I also do a 20% saturation increase at the end of Deep Sky Stacker to guide me as to what colours I've. Maybe a bit OTT. I plan to show a couple of images to celebrate my first year if imaging, including M51 with a lot of blue....

[andrewluck]

You should be doing a background neutralisation and colour calibration before the saturation boost though.

Andrew

[broadsword]

I do, and a dynamic background extraction. After a load more stuff it all seems to creep back...

[andrewluck]

Not something that I've had a problem with. I suspect that the calibration is leaving a residual colour cast. However, I guess there's nothing stopping you running another background neutralisation later in processing.

Andrew

[mdstuart]

Visually it just looks white like all the others!