The big one.... Virgo Supercluster Completed & Annoted (Star 71)

[Uranium235]

Now theres a novelty.... two nights of back to back moonless clear sky! Just the job for finishing this project off... and I'll be glad to see the back of it to be honest! It wasnt too bad when it was six panes, but getting nine panes to WCS solve has been a royal pain. I managed to get it solved eventually by mounting the 1000d on the dual bar and shooting some (very) widefield shots using the 50mm f1.8 - stopped down to f5 to keep the field as flat as possible. This project has also been a severe lesson in how to deal with multiple gradients, but a bit of pixel math soon sorted that out.

From there I could register each pane to the widefield, and get it solved - which then in turn allowed me to link it to SIMBAD for adding the additional object labels. There are perhaps one or two errant labels kicking about, and some of the fuzzies were not in the SIMBAD database (despite showing up on the SDSS images) - but after 5 hours I'd had enough of scouring such a large image so I've saved it off.

In the end I didnt get the 1000 galaxies I wanted (such is the limit of my time, equipment and location), but I guess 529 will do!   not bad for a light polluted back garden. I will include a list of what is in the FITS header and present it as a table so it doesnt take up too much space. I'll post links to the full size images too, but be aware that the unannoted version is 28mb (and thats just the mono JPEG!).

The only (very minor) slip up is that I missed a strip off the bottom right corner, but Im not going to beat myself up over that!

 

Virgo Supercluster

9 pane mosaic (ranging from 2 - 2.5 hours per pane), total exposure = 20 hours

Star 71, Atik 383L+, NEQ6

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Unannoted:

Fullsize:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1673/26145897946_a5893bb34a_o.jpg

 

Annoted:

Fullsize:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1528/26146078666_1eb57f04cc_o.jpg

 

IC	IC (2)	NGC	2MASS	LEDA	Other
IC 3052	IC 3431	NGC 4186	2MASS J12185834+1035476	LEDA 169494	[SDV2005] 140
IC 3053	IC 3432	NGC 4189	2MASS J12262673+1328217	LEDA 2816814	[WLH2009] 539
IC 3053A	IC 3435	NGC 4192	2MASS J12302467+1111227	LEDA 39108	[WLH2009] J188.03908+11.55210
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IC 3055	IC 3440	NGC 4200	2MASX J12135618+1340354	LEDA 39164	2MFGC 9664
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IC 3063	IC 3453	NGC 4262	2MASX J12182766+1241470	LEDA 39632	AGC 220778
IC 3065	IC 3457	NGC 4267	2MASX J12183573+1011075	LEDA 39638	AGC 224316
IC 3066	IC 3459	NGC 4294	2MASX J12190958+1142366	LEDA 39849	AGC 224612
IC 3068	IC 3461	NGC 4298	2MASX J12195453+1101438	LEDA 39894	AGC 226045
IC 3069	IC 3462	NGC 4299	2MASX J12214375+1345168	LEDA 39910	AGC 226069
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IC 3091	IC 3481	NGC 4328	2MASX J12250351+1314403	LEDA 40534	MCG+02-31-055
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IC 3094	IC 3486	NGC 4351	2MASX J12251758+1410230	LEDA 40548	MCG+02-32-001
IC 3096	IC 3489	NGC 4352	2MASX J12253262+1225000	LEDA 40560	MCG+02-32-032
IC 3099	IC 3490	NGC 4354	2MASX J12263348+1421230	LEDA 40574	MCG+02-32-045
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IC 3101	IC 3499	NGC 4368	2MASX J12270237+1252077	LEDA 40598	MCG+02-32-136
IC 3105	IC 3500	NGC 4371	2MASX J12285500+1347268	LEDA 40617	MCG+02-32-145
IC 3107	IC 3501	NGC 4374	2MASX J12290354+1024579	LEDA 40641	MCG+03-31-078
IC 3108	IC 3505	NGC 4377	2MASX J12291493+1258410	LEDA 40723	MCG+03-31-087
IC 3109	IC 3506	NGC 4379	2MASX J12291656+1206150	LEDA 40767	MCG+03-32-011
IC 3120	IC 3509	NGC 4387	2MASX J12292757+1349500	LEDA 40798	MCG+03-32-055
IC 3121	IC 3510	NGC 4388	2MASX J12295113+1352042	LEDA 40838	MCG+03-32-082
IC 3126	IC 3519	NGC 4390	2MASX J12295233+1146491	LEDA 40844	Mrk 779
IC 3127	IC 3520	NGC 4396	2MASX J12304890+1032464	LEDA 40848	NVSS J121534+135634
IC 3128	IC 3522	NGC 4402	2MASX J12310124+1029004	LEDA 40957	NVSS J121620+155417
IC 3142	IC 3523	NGC 4406	2MASX J12325872+1227288	LEDA 40958	SDSS J121445.83+135830.4
IC 3147	IC 3524	NGC 4413	2MASX J12334983+1237203	LEDA 40995	SDSS J121449.86+102610.1
IC 3149	IC 3528	NGC 4419	2MASX J12340980+1509248	LEDA 41019	SDSS J121458.33+102913.9
IC 3157	IC 3534	NGC 4421	2MASX J12370484+1515319	LEDA 41059	SDSS J121633.70+130153.6
IC 3159	IC 3540	NGC 4425	2MASX J12375763+1021096	LEDA 41195	SDSS J121700.04+130254.3
IC 3173	IC 3542	NGC 4429	2MASX J12380614+1523150	LEDA 41212	SDSS J121906.99+130543.5
IC 3174	IC 3548	NGC 4431	2MASX J12390683+1521306	LEDA 41240	SDSS J123101.46+155614.8
IC 3182	IC 3558	NGC 4435	2MASX J12394863+1059547	LEDA 41370	SDSS J123215.14+102119.2
IC 3187	IC 3566	NGC 4436	2MASX J12412460+1210328	LEDA 41458	SDSS J123432.56+103253.4
IC 3188	IC 3567	NGC 4438	2MASX J12431063+1253112	LEDA 41484	SDSS J124230.57+103031.5
IC 3192	IC 3573	NGC 4440	2MASX J12441198+1256306	LEDA 41495	SDSS J124330.55+111737.7
IC 3196	IC 3574	NGC 4446		LEDA 41516	SDSSCGB 50474.1
IC 3199	IC 3575	NGC 4447		LEDA 41541	SDSSCGB 6022.1
IC 3208	IC 3578	NGC 4452		LEDA 41570	UGC 7269
IC 3209	IC 3583	NGC 4458		LEDA 41607	UGC 7347
IC 3220	IC 3584	NGC 4459		LEDA 41723	UGC 7425
IC 3224	IC 3586	NGC 4461		LEDA 41818	UGC 7436
IC 3233	IC 3601	NGC 4468		LEDA 41822	UGC 7857
IC 3235	IC 3603	NGC 4473		LEDA 41826	VCC 991
IC 3238	IC 3604	NGC 4474		LEDA 41834	VPCX 13
IC 3239	IC 3606	NGC 4476		LEDA 41937
IC 3240	IC 3607	NGC 4477		LEDA 41978
IC 3244	IC 3608	NGC 4478		LEDA 42027
IC 3246	IC 3609	NGC 4479		LEDA 42046
IC 3258	IC 3611	NGC 4482		LEDA 42059
IC 3261	IC 3612	NGC 4486		LEDA 42072
IC 3275	IC 3613	NGC 4491		LEDA 42084
IC 3279	IC 3621	NGC 4497		LEDA 42114
IC 3280	IC 3622	NGC 4501		LEDA 42132
IC 3284	IC 3624	NGC 4503		LEDA 42136
IC 3291	IC 3625	NGC 4506		LEDA 42242
IC 3303	IC 3629	NGC 4516		LEDA 42527
IC 3305	IC 3631	NGC 4523		LEDA 42547
IC 3311	IC 3635	NGC 4528		LEDA 42571
IC 3313	IC 3637	NGC 4531		LEDA 42585
IC 3315	IC 3638	NGC 4540		LEDA 42597
IC 3320	IC 3643	NGC 4548		LEDA 42602
IC 3327	IC 3647	NGC 4550		LEDA 42669
IC 3331	IC 3648	NGC 4551		LEDA 42710
IC 3333	IC 3652	NGC 4552		LEDA 42758
IC 3344	IC 3653	NGC 4554		LEDA 42779
IC 3346	IC 3658	NGC 4564		LEDA 42846
IC 3347	IC 3663	NGC 4567		LEDA 42890
IC 3349	IC 3665	NGC 4568
IC 3355	IC 3670	NGC 4569
IC 3356	IC 3672	NGC 4571
IC 3358	IC 3676	NGC 4579
IC 3361	IC 3684	NGC 4584
IC 3363	IC 3686	NGC 4595
IC 3365	IC 3688	NGC 4606
IC 3371	IC 3690	NGC 4607
IC 3381	IC 3693	NGC 4611
IC 3382	IC 3694	NGC 4620
IC 3383	IC 3698	NGC 4621
IC 3386	IC 3701	NGC 4633
IC 3388	IC 3702	NGC 4634
IC 3392	IC 3704	NGC 4637
IC 3393	IC 3710	NGC 4638
IC 3408	IC 3711	NGC 4639
IC 3409	IC 3712	NGC 4640
IC 3413	IC 3714	NGC 4641
IC 3416	IC 3718	NGC 4647
IC 3418	IC 3720	NGC 4649
IC 3419	IC 3722	NGC 4654
IC 3422	IC 3724	NGC 4659
IC 3425	IC 771	NGC 4660
	IC 775
	IC 781
	IC 783
	IC 783A
	IC 794
	IC 797
	IC 798
	IC 800
	IC 810

 

 

[ollypenrice]

Now that's a LOVELY piece of work and very polished on all counts. Most impressive. 

Olly

[Uranium235]

4 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Now that's a LOVELY piece of work and very polished on all counts. Most impressive. 

Olly

Cheers Olly

I've been after this image for a couple of years now, glad I've finally gotten round to it! It might even serve as a useful "map" should anybody else want to tackle the same area, and need something to register to.

[Davey-T]

Well done Rob, looks like a labour of love

Dave

[Daniel-K]

Worth the hassle rob great image mate and an excellent  to refer to.

[Jonk]

Agreed, very nice. I was playing with the chain last night too.

[toxic]

very weldone Rob 

 

[Uranium235]

Thanks guys!

[MrsGnomus]

Great image. What do you estimate the total man-hours to be?

Coincidentally we were shooting Markarian's chain over the same two clear moonless nights as you. Still got a bit to go mind. It is interesting what you said about gradients. We have quite bad ones in our Lum and Red channels (all we have shot so far). Can you tell us a bit more about this 'Pixel Math' method of dealing with them? We have PI, but Pixel Math sounds awfully scary!

[Leveye]

Really amazing work on this one!

[Uranium235]

39 minutes ago, MrsGnomus said:

Great image. What do you estimate the total man-hours to be?

Coincidentally we were shooting Markarian's chain over the same two clear moonless nights as you. Still got a bit to go mind. It is interesting what you said about gradients. We have quite bad ones in our Lum and Red channels (all we have shot so far). Can you tell us a bit more about this 'Pixel Math' method of dealing with them? We have PI, but Pixel Math sounds awfully scary!

I'd say the total time with capture, calibration, pre-processing and main processing is about 28 hours.

The pixel math bit is variation of the PI routine ive developed to deal with excessive gradients in galaxy images - if I didnt get rid of them the mosaic would be impossible.

1) Part stretch the image in Ps (to reveal the gradient), save it off.

2) Run a star removal action to remove all the stars

3) Clone brush out all the galaxies

4) Apply a very heavy dose of the dust & scratches filter in Ps (max setting - 250), that wipes out any star remnants and leaves just the gradient.

5 (optional) Model a model of the gradient using DBE in PI LE (or the full size version if you have it), this smooths it out further and avoids the "lumpy background" you sometimes get with just using PI and takes the hit and miss out of it.

6) Apply this gradient model to the image you saved off in step 1 using Maxim DL pixel math (I find it easier to work with), not forgetting to set a constant so the histogram isnt hard left (the constant function is also available in PI).

[strutsinaction]

There's no denying your commitment to this project! Great achievement, congratulations! What's next? 

Regards
John

[Uranium235]

Whats next? A good nights sleep thats what!

I might have a go at the Leo triplet next or the Coma cluster (though one pane would be enough to cover that). The MW will be making a comeback by the end of April, so I'll probably (as always!) start off in Cygnus.

[Tommohawk]

Fabulous image, and great to see all the info too.

[steppenwolf]

A big undertaking carried out impressively - well done, Rob, I really like the whole thing.

[Uranium235]

Thanks Steve, though I may have a little tinker with it later on - becuase when I registered the panes I lost about 3mb per pane (got downsampled). Not a bad thing really, but I'd like to see what it looks like if restored close to full resolution.

[David Smith]

Impressive

[Barry-Wilson]

Great dedication and perseverance - a wonderful image which shows the immensity of the universe, all the more remarkable knowing it's taken from a back garden in Blighty!

Congratulations .

[StargeezerTim]

Thank you... just spent twenty enjoyable and interesting minutes looking at your work and thinking about God,  the universe and the meaning of life and other trivia! 

Wonderful and awe inspiring...

[Uranium235]

34 minutes ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Great dedication and perseverance - a wonderful image which shows the immensity of the universe, all the more remarkable knowing it's taken from a back garden in Blighty!

Congratulations .

Thanks Barry, and do you know what the mad part is? Within this Supercluster are smaller clusters of galaxies, all very close together... actually, a little too close for my software to annote so I ended up picking just a couple when there was perhaps 5-6 separate galaxies in those little clusters.

Going through the SIMBAD database is a learning experience! (stuff like.... "cor blimey, never knew that classification existed!"). The only thing missing from my info is the Z shift, or some sort of approximate distance - not unless I take the average distance of the whole supercluster, which is ~65MLY.

[laudropb]

Great image and presentation. All your hard work has been justly rewarded.

[Mr Spock]

Quite something - very special indeed.

[sulaco]

First class work, great imaging.

 

[gnomus]

16 hours ago, Uranium235 said:

I'd say the total time with capture, calibration, pre-processing and main processing is about 28 hours.

The pixel math bit is variation of the PI routine ive developed to deal with excessive gradients in galaxy images - if I didnt get rid of them the mosaic would be impossible.

1) Part stretch the image in Ps (to reveal the gradient), save it off.

2) Run a star removal action to remove all the stars

3) Clone brush out all the galaxies

4) Apply a very heavy dose of the dust & scratches filter in Ps (max setting - 250), that wipes out any star remnants and leaves just the gradient.

5 (optional) Model a model of the gradient using DBE in PI LE (or the full size version if you have it), this smooths it out further and avoids the "lumpy background" you sometimes get with just using PI and takes the hit and miss out of it.

6) Apply this gradient model to the image you saved off in step 1 using Maxim DL pixel math (I find it easier to work with), not forgetting to set a constant so the histogram isnt hard left (the constant function is also available in PI).

Thanks for sharing this workflow.  It is extremely helpful.  Would you mind elaborating on a couple of things?

By 'star removal action' do you mean something like Straton?

We do have the full version of PI.  I assume you do the DBE in this way because you find it easier to deal with the gradient in a star-free, object-free image?  

(I don't have Maxim, but Pixel Math is available in PI).  In any event, when using Pixel Math, how does one ensure that one adds the 'flattened' version to only the background and not the stars and galaxies in the Step 1 image? 

[Uranium235]

1 hour ago, gnomus said:

Thanks for sharing this workflow.  It is extremely helpful.  Would you mind elaborating on a couple of things?

By 'star removal action' do you mean something like Straton?

We do have the full version of PI.  I assume you do the DBE in this way because you find it easier to deal with the gradient in a star-free, object-free image?  

(I don't have Maxim, but Pixel Math is available in PI).  In any event, when using Pixel Math, how does one ensure that one adds the 'flattened' version to only the background and not the stars and galaxies in the Step 1 image? 

The star removal action is here (free):

http://astroanarchy.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/star-removal-ps-action.html

Yes thats about the gist of it, its easier to deal with if there are no objects or stars there to deal with. When using pixel math for gradients, your are only concetrating on the background - the stars and galaxies are unaffected, and you have the option of applying it in various strengths and by adding a constant. Its much the same method when you are trying to model in PI DBE because you are trying to avoid stars and glaxies to produce the smoothest model possible. Its best to tinker with it and see what works best for you. For a mono image I would imagine the PI setting would be a K of 0.800000 and a constant of about 50(ish) - that should ensure the histogram isnt hard left.

However, it does have its limitations - if you are looking to bring out flux or background dust then you would need to be very careful in how you go about it (all to easy to accidentally zap em). In which case its probably better to stick with standard DBE by selecting sampling points across the image.