NGC 3718 - A galaxy with a twist!

[Taman]

Also known as ARP 214 from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

This strange looking galaxy is being twisted out of shape by gravitational forces from neighbouring galaxy NGC 3729. Both galaxies are about 52 million light years away.
The small cluster of galaxies at the bottom of the image (Hickson Group 56) are much further away, around 400 million light years.

Taken over 2 nights. 66 x 300s with darks, flats and dark flats. Total exposure time 5 hours 30 mins.

C11 at f6.3 and ASI294MC Pro with Optolong L-Pro filter.

Image processed with ASTAP, SiriL, Starnet++ and Photoshop.

Thanks for looking!

Tony.
 

[DaveS]

That's very good. Just started on that one myself, though results so far are nothing like as good. Only got 4 hours so far, and no idea when I'll get more with an ever brightening moon and shortening dark.

[AbsolutelyN]

Beautiful. 

[geeklee]

17 hours ago, Taman said:

Total exposure time 5 hours 30 mins.

Excellent Tony.  I had ~11 hours and struggled to get much from the fainter arms.

[Taman]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

That's very good. Just started on that one myself, though results so far are nothing like as good. Only got 4 hours so far, and no idea when I'll get more with an ever brightening moon and shortening dark.

Thanks Dave! It's an interesting galaxy and seems to soak up exposure time.

Tony.

[Taman]

48 minutes ago, geeklee said:

Excellent Tony.  I had ~11 hours and struggled to get much from the fainter arms.

Thanks Lee!

The exposure time helped, but not sure how much more I could get out of it without more aperture! 

Tony.

[DaveS]

I've been bashing at this with the ODK 12 and 16200. Could do with a more sensitive camera but can't afford more aperture!

[Taman]

7 minutes ago, DaveS said:

I've been bashing at this with the ODK 12 and 16200. Could do with a more sensitive camera but can't afford more aperture!

Be interesting to see what you get out of it. 

Tony.

[CCD-Freak]

That is a great image of an interesting object.

I am planning to image this again when I go to western New Mexico next month.  This image was a test of my imaging rig before the trip.  Mother Nature threw just about everything at me so I only managed to keep 28 x 180 second subs for only a total of 1.4 hours. My image is much more noisy due to the limited total exposure.    ASI-533MCP with an AT10RC on an AP900 mount.  Captured and processed with Astro Art 7.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by CCD-Freak
Image upside down

[CCD-Freak]

Not sure how I got a second image and I can't delete it. 8^P

Edited April 17, 2021 by CCD-Freak

[Taman]

That is a nice test image John! I wish I had the luxury of really dark skies. 

Enjoy your trip to New Mexico!

Tony.

73 de GJ4YBM

[CCD-Freak]

Thanks Tony

I am indeed lucky to have dark skies and I searched for three years to find it.  My new observatory site is almost Bortle 1 (SQM 21.99 in the 2015 data).  I am looking forward to getting and observatory and cabin built.   It is 200 miles to the SRO site but since I am a pensioner I can take my caravan out and stay for as long as the skies are clear

We make the trek to New Mexico once or twice a year to enjoy the dark sky and very low humidity and high probability of clear sky.  Now that I have a nice dark site with typically low humidity I will probably make the 850 mile drive (each way) to NM less often.

[Taman]

1 hour ago, CCD-Freak said:

Thanks Tony

I am indeed lucky to have dark skies and I searched for three years to find it.  My new observatory site is almost Bortle 1 (SQM 21.99 in the 2015 data).  I am looking forward to getting and observatory and cabin built.   It is 200 miles to the SRO site but since I am a pensioner I can take my caravan out and stay for as long as the skies are clear

We make the trek to New Mexico once or twice a year to enjoy the dark sky and very low humidity and high probability of clear sky.  Now that I have a nice dark site with typically low humidity I will probably make the 850 mile drive (each way) to NM less often.

 

 

It looks wonderful! I've got Bortle 4 in the back garden and not too many other places to go on a 9 x 5 mile Island 😀

Would also be nice to have more than a couple of clear nights a month if I'm lucky!

[CCD-Freak]

Another good thing about the site is low RF noise so it is great for amateur radio operation.  I will be putting up some antennas out there when I get the cabin done.   That will give me something to do during the day and cloudy nights.  For now I am operating from my mobile.   Hope we can work each other at some point.

[Taman]

11 hours ago, CCD-Freak said:

Another good thing about the site is low RF noise so it is great for amateur radio operation.  I will be putting up some antennas out there when I get the cabin done.   That will give me something to do during the day and cloudy nights.  For now I am operating from my mobile.   Hope we can work each other at some point.

 

You've got the best of both worlds and great hobbies!

I've been off air for a long time, but may come back at some point. My main interest was CW using a variety of keys.

73 and clear skies!

Tony.

[DaveS]

After fighting many battles with rubbish data I've posted my poor effort. Not worthy of the kit used.  

[Taman]

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

After fighting many battles with rubbish data I've posted my poor effort. Not worthy of the kit used.  

It looks ok to me, just the background. I used to have similar problems when I stacked with DSS, but with ASTAP I get nice smooth images.

Happy to have a look at your data if you'd like to share.

Tony.

[Thingo]

On 16/04/2021 at 20:57, Taman said:

Also known as ARP 214 from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

This strange looking galaxy is being twisted out of shape by gravitational forces from neighbouring galaxy NGC 3729. Both galaxies are about 52 million light years away.
The small cluster of galaxies at the bottom of the image (Hickson Group 56) are much further away, around 400 million light years.

Taken over 2 nights. 66 x 300s with darks, flats and dark flats. Total exposure time 5 hours 30 mins.

C11 at f6.3 and ASI294MC Pro with Optolong L-Pro filter.

Image processed with ASTAP, SiriL, Starnet++ and Photoshop.

Thanks for looking!

Tony.
 

This is the kind of posts that makes me consider astrophotography. Great work!

[Taman]

6 hours ago, Thingo said:

This is the kind of posts that makes me consider astrophotography. Great work!

Thank you, much appreciated!

Tony.