The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy ( Messier 83 , NGC 5236) in Hydra

[MikeODay]

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy ( Messier 83, NGC 5236 ) in the constellation Hydra.

 

 

( click on image to see fuill size )

 

Messier 83 is a relatively large and bright spiral galaxy visible from southern and mid latitudes. Clearly visible is the central bar with its bright central bulge as well as multiple dark dust lanes and areas of nebulosity in the sweeping arms. At a distance of 15 Million light years, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, whilst close in astronomical terms, is too far away and hence way too small for my backyard telescope to resolve individual stars; so all of the stars that can be seen are in fact in the near foreground of the image and reside, like us, in the Milkyway Galaxy.

Much harder to see are the many far more distant galaxies that look like tiny fuzzy stars in the image. The easiest of which are PGC 724536 and PGC 48132 that appear close together in the centre of the image just to the right of Messier 83. Both are edge on and look like tiny flying saucers.

Details:

Skywatcher Quattro 10" f4 Newtonian.
Skywatcher AZ Eq6 GT Mount
Orion 80mm f5 guide scope and auto guider - PHD2 software.
Nikon D5300 (unmodified)
Hutech IDAS D1 filter,
14bit NEF, Long Exp. NR on.
25 June 2016.
17 x 4min ISO400

Pixinsight and photoshop.

Links:

https://500px.com/mikeoday
http://photo.net/photos/MikeODay

[Knighty2112]

Lovely image. Well captured!  

[MikeODay]

3 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Lovely image. Well captured!  

Thanks, much appreciated.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice. Quite a low surface brightness object. I once spotted this nearly overhead near Sydney, Australia with 15x70 bins, but it was very hard.

[laudropb]

Very nice image. Lots of good detail captured. Always nice to Southern sky objects.

[MikeODay]

1 hour ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Very nice. Quite a low surface brightness object. I once spotted this nearly overhead near Sydney, Australia with 15x70 bins, but it was very hard.

Thanks Michael.

I imagine you did well to see this - I started using 1sec x 1600ISO to take some framing test shots and could only just make out the central bright spot.. You must have good eyes.. And yes, for these shot it passed almost directly overhead during the session - a perfect position to minimise my local light pollution.

cheers

Mike

[MikeODay]

59 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very nice image. Lots of good detail captured. Always nice to Southern sky objects.

Cheers, much appreciated.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just now, mike005 said:

Thanks Michael.

I imagine you did well to see this - I started using 1sec x 1600ISO to take some framing test shots and could only just make out the central bright spot.. You must have good eyes.. And yes, for these shot it passed almost directly overhead during the session - a perfect position to minimise my local light pollution.

cheers

Mike

Cheers Mike,

I have a lot of DSO hunting experience, and this target required all of it, plus very transparent skies. It is a bit harder than M101, which is much bigger. However, I consistently spotted a faint circular glow in the right location with the 15x70s, and I found it the next night too (averted vision only) so counted it. I hope to get a look with my main scope from the Pyrenees in a month's time, but I am not sure it will work.

[baggywrinkle]

That is beautiful.

[MikeODay]

6 minutes ago, baggywrinkle said:

That is beautiful.

Thank you very much.

Cheers

Mike

[MikeODay]

11 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Cheers Mike,

I have a lot of DSO hunting experience, and this target required all of it, plus very transparent skies. It is a bit harder than M101, which is much bigger. However, I consistently spotted a faint circular glow in the right location with the 15x70s, and I found it the next night too (averted vision only) so counted it. I hope to get a look with my main scope from the Pyrenees in a month's time, but I am not sure it will work.

Real dark skies must be wonderful.. I hope you have great weather and a wonderful trip.

Cheers

Mike

[toxic]

very nice indeed, great colour and detail 

[Astroboy239]

Very nice image and great detail. One of my favorites. I had my first look at this galaxy last month during a star party competition which gave me 10points☺

[MikeODay]

7 hours ago, toxic said:

very nice indeed, great colour and detail 

Thanks Chris, much appreciated.

[MikeODay]

5 hours ago, Astroboy239 said:

Very nice image and great detail. One of my favorites. I had my first look at this galaxy last month during a star party competition which gave me 10points☺

Thanks and well done on your observing skills.