M45

[alan4908]

With the poor UK weather, I ran out of patience waiting for additional colour data on the green and blue channels, so here's 7 hours of M45.

Although the framing is not great within this field of view, I do like the detail and the fact that I also managed to capture a faint galaxy (PGC13696 - bottom right) with a bit of colour.

Alan

 

 

LIGHTS: L:19; R:12;G:5;B:6 x 600s, BIAS:100; DARKS:30; FLATS: 40 all at -20C. 

[wxsatuser]

Must admit I did'nt know there was a galaxy at that spot, even so, nice detail.

[gorann]

Very nice detail Alan!

and I had not noticed that galaxy before but now I see it also in my images of M45

Thanks for pointing it out!

[alan4908]

7 hours ago, wxsatuser said:

Must admit I did'nt know there was a galaxy at that spot, even so, nice detail.

Thanks Mike. 

1 hour ago, gorann said:

Very nice detail Alan!

and I had not noticed that galaxy before but now I see it also in my images of M45

Thanks for pointing it out!

Thanks Goran. On my previous attempt of M45, I hadn't noticed the galaxy either.

[Uplooker]

Hi Alan,

Great capture, well processed. Since you are all at it,I will have to join you in saying " i never knew there was a galaxy there". Now I do, thank for informing me :-)

[wimvb]

Me too (or should that be, me four? ) Great image so far. Besides not knowing of the galaxy, I also never realised that the nebula is so full of streaks. As if painted with crayons. Not the usual rendering, but I quite like it.

[alan4908]

10 hours ago, Uplooker said:

Hi Alan,

Great capture, well processed. Since you are all at it,I will have to join you in saying " i never knew there was a galaxy there". Now I do, thank for informing me :-)

Thanks Ian - on the galaxy front, since I was a little curious, I looked up in up in the NED database where it is also known as UGC 02838, apparently it is  magnitude 16 and is about 325m light years away.

7 hours ago, wimvb said:

Me too (or should that be, me four? ) Great image so far. Besides not knowing of the galaxy, I also never realised that the nebula is so full of streaks. As if painted with crayons. Not the usual rendering, but I quite like it.

Thanks - yes, the nebula does have lots of very fine streaks which I've attempted to highlight via sharpening in post processing.

[Barry-Wilson]

Well done Alan, punchy M45 and faint fuzzy.  Well done.

[steppenwolf]

Lovely image, Alan, I really like this one a lot and I love the galaxy capture too!

P.S. I've just been to check out my own images of this object and sure enough, there's that slither of a galaxy in each one that I have never noticed before - I love this place!

[alan4908]

2 hours ago, Barry-Wilson said:

Well done Alan, punchy M45 and faint fuzzy.  Well done.

Thanks Barry - I thought that the very bright stars might be a bit too punchy..but I decided against reducing their size.

1 hour ago, steppenwolf said:

Lovely image, Alan, I really like this one a lot and I love the galaxy capture too!

P.S. I've just been to check out my own images of this object and sure enough, there's that slither of a galaxy in each one that I have never noticed before - I love this place!

Thanks Steve !

[gorann]

I did some simple googling of that galaxy and all the hits are on Pleiades images where it has been caught by accident like you did. No one seems to have put a big SCT at the test on that one. The best I found (not much better than yours) was in this image, which by the way is a quite amazing version of the Pleiades (really full of streaks):

http://www.redshiftastro.com/2015/11/08/m45-the-pleiades/

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

Lovely image, Alan, I really like this one a lot and I love the galaxy capture too!

P.S. I've just been to check out my own images of this object and sure enough, there's that slither of a galaxy in each one that I have never noticed before - I love this place!

So did I actually. Pixel peeping at my "Punked M45", there definitely is a pixel where the galaxy should be, that is slightly brighter than its surroundings. I am convined that this can't be noise and must in fact be the galaxy.

Or is this a case of "you see it if you believe it"?

[alan4908]

17 hours ago, gorann said:

I did some simple googling of that galaxy and all the hits are on Pleiades images where it has been caught by accident like you did. No one seems to have put a big SCT at the test on that one. The best I found (not much better than yours) was in this image, which by the way is a quite amazing version of the Pleiades (really full of streaks):

http://www.redshiftastro.com/2015/11/08/m45-the-pleiades/

 

16 hours ago, wimvb said:

So did I actually. Pixel peeping at my "Punked M45", there definitely is a pixel where the galaxy should be, that is slightly brighter than its surroundings. I am convined that this can't be noise and must in fact be the galaxy.

Or is this a case of "you see it if you believe it"?

 Yes, I also cannot find a detailed image of the galaxy. What I found a little surprising was the fact it came out with a redish tone in the central parts, I'm not sure if this is correct or not 

[gorann]

49 minutes ago, alan4908 said:

 

 Yes, I also cannot find a detailed image of the galaxy. What I found a little surprising was the fact it came out with a redish tone in the central parts, I'm not sure if this is correct or not 

Here is a mix of data from Ole Alexander Ødegård (aka Xplode) and myself of M45 where I have zoomed in on the galaxy in the second image. It looks reddish also in our version, so it may be red-shifted because it is far far far away.

[alan4908]

2 minutes ago, gorann said:

It looks reddish also in our version, so it may be red-shifted because it is far far far away.

Thanks Goran !

[PatrickGilliland]

Nice work Alan - good spot on the galaxy that had eluded me and i do like small galaxy hunting.  Always a bonus.

It's well processed with nice structure and colours, all the better when considered with the poor seeing we have all been suffering with.

Paddy

[alan4908]

11 hours ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Nice work Alan - good spot on the galaxy that had eluded me and i do like small galaxy hunting.  Always a bonus.

It's well processed with nice structure and colours, all the better when considered with the poor seeing we have all been suffering with.

Paddy

Thanks Paddy - I only spotted the galaxy whilst I was attempting to correct the starfield halos which came out as less than perfect from my non-APO scope. 

Yes, I agree, the seeing around my locality as not been good recently, at the moment, I'm currently surrounded by mist/fog  

Alan