SGL 2022 Challenge 3 - Galaxy Clusters

[Fegato]

Here is the area around M59 and M60 in Virgo.  We've had a couple of clear nights here (on 21 & 22 April), and I was focusing on the Abell 1314 galaxy cluster with this challenge in mind. However, I spotted a few imagers targeting the new supernova in NGC4647, discovered by Koichi Itagaki on 16th April and thought I'd grab a couple of hours to have a go myself. It also qualifies for the challenge, so here it is.

I've seen distance estimates for this galaxy of 63, 68 and 79 million light years away. Not sure which is right, but if we take 68 million the dinosaurs were on earth when this supernova actually happened. And it's so bright. Sometimes this stuff just blows your mind!

The picture is not particularly great - stars are blobby (wind was strong and guiding poor), and only a couple of hours integration. But you can't miss that supernova.

Celestron 8 Edge HD, CEM120 mount, ZWO ASI294MC pro, UV/IR cut filter, 39 x 180s

[Clarkey]

I'm going to add another entry - the Leo triplet plus NGC 3593. To be honest it is not my best, but it is my first image using a dual scope rig. The rig is really a widefield set up, but as I was lacking in targets to try it out I had a go at this. This was taken on 18th April using a StellaMira 90mm ED Triplet with an ASI 1600mm pro for all of the luminance data. The colour data was captured using a Canon 600D on a SW Evostar ED80. The total imaging time was about 9 hours, 4.5 on each rig in 3 minute subs using NINA and synchronised dithering. Processing was in APP, and Affinity. Noise on the 600D was a problem in the warmer weather - my plan is to replace this with an IMX571 based colour camera when funds allow.

Leo_Triplet_dual_AP1.tiff

[tomato]

Here is a 5 panel mosaic (well, 4.5 really, I needed an extra panel to fill in the top LH corner of my original plan) of Markarian's Chain and associated galaxies, centred on the 'Eyes', NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. The FOV is about 2.5 x 1.5 degrees, the PI annotated image lists a total of 302 galaxies.

Captured with the Esprit 150/IMX571 OSC dual rig, 60 x 2 mins on each panel. Calibrated, stacked and mosaic assembled in APP (1st LNC, 3 iterations, MBB set at 10%), further processing in APP, PI and AP. This version is at the original sampling rate, 0.714 arcsec per pixel, no resampling.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by tomato

[DaveS]

HCG 68, NGC 5371, and fuzzies.

And a gert light streak, gah!

Yet another Hickson Compact Group, this time HCG 68 which is at lower right, NGC 5731 is the pretty little spiral top right. The framing was chosen so as to include a lot of faint fuzzies to the left. North is to the right. The light streak is from a bright star just out of frame.

I'm going to post this now as I can't see any clear night before the Devil's Searchlight ruins the sky again. This is 32 x 10 min bin 1 Luminance, 11 x 10 min Bin 2 Red, 12 x 10 min Bin 2 Green, and 11 x 17.5 min Bin 2 Blue (G2v calibration). I actually captured 42 Lum and 14 each RGB, but a lot of subs were rejected.

The individual stacks were cropped to remove alignment edges and given gradient reductions. The Luminance was given a DDP with high-pass filter, and Richardson-Lucy deconvolution. The individual RGB stacks were combined into a RGB image which was given a DDP without high-pass (To preserve star cores), but with a modest saturation boost. After another crop it was upscaled to match the Lum. The LRGB was then synthesised and a light unsharp mask applied to bring out the spiral arms.

The cropping for edge removal has resulted in NGC 5371 almost being cropped., unfortunately.

[Fegato]

Here is the Abell 1314 galaxy cluster, centred around IC712. Not a lot of detail to be found in the galaxies, but lots of them in the cluster and beyond. PGC catalogue picks up over 90 here.

The picture suffers from some rather bloated stars, not least caused by poor guiding in difficult conditions.  I haven't attempted to do anything about that as I'm not sure any processing would have been able to distinguish some of the galaxies from stars. Anyway, I've largely left it as it is, and here it is!

Celestron 8 Edge HD on CEM120, ASI294MC pro, Celestron OAG with ASI290MM mini. 78 x 180s

 

[powerlord]

Well, here's my Leo group. 3 biguns, and a few very small, but hopefully visibly wee ones.

 

[Snoani]

My galaxy cluster is M100, with a least five other galaxy in the frame.  

It is made up of just over 6 hours (120 x 3mins) of data, taken using a ASI 533MC Pro, William Optics GT81, HEQ5 and Asiair Pro.  All subs taken between 24 April - 29 April 2022.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Snoani

[tomato]

Here is another mosaic of the Virgo region, with M60 in the lower left and M58 in the upper right. 3 panels each of 90 x 2 min subs taken with the Esprit 150/IMX 571 OSC rig. SN 2022 hrs in NGC 4647 is also in there. Calibrated, stacked and mosaic assembled in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP. Imaged and presented at native resolution, 0.713 arcsec per pixel.

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by tomato
SN crop reprocessed

[lukebl]

This is a magnificent sweep of galaxies in Boötes. Zoom in and you'll see literally hundreds of galaxies here of all types. In the centre is the face-on spiral NGC5435 with its companion edge-on spiral NGC5434B or UGC08967. The brighter members of this group are apparently 250 million light years distant. There are some quasars here over 11 mly distant. The bright star at the bottom is 6th magnitude HD122563, 773 light years distant.

I captured the luminance on 26th April, and was despairing of getting any colour due to moon,  clouds and the oncoming permanent twilight, but managed to capture enough R & B last night to give it a flush of colour.

Captured using an Atik 383L+, 250mm f/4.8 Newt. 45 x 300s exposures luminance, 15 x 180s R & B binned 2x, synthetic green channel. Stacked in ASTAP, processed in Photoshop. Field of view 51.6 x 38.9 arcmins. 0.924 arcsec/pixel. According to ASTAP, I've captured objects down to about mag 21 here.

Labelled:

[steviemac500]

Won't win any prizes but here's my recent take on the Leo Triplet.  3 hours in L ,1 each in RGB. Really just getting back to grips after a laptop catastrophe and focuser issues. 5 minute subs, processed in PI. Taken on the 7th and 9th May. Hope you like it.

Steve

[Clarkey]

I'll add another Hickson 68. Tricky to process because someone decided to put a really bright star in the middle of the group😁.

Imaged on the 23rd and 25th March using an RC8 @ F8 and ASI 1600MM pro in LRGB. In total about 7hrs luminance and an 2 hours each of RGB.

Hickson_68 ST2 AP2.tiff

[Snoani]

This is my first attempt to image M106 and a few companion galaxies.   

It is made up of just 4.5 hours (90 x 3mins) of data.  I did image about 9 hours in total but I lost a lot about half to some form of camera shake or guiding issue that gave star trails or double stars. 

The images were captured with an ASI 533MC Pro, William Optics GT81, HEQ5 (rowan belt) and Asiair Pro.  All subs taken between 04 May - 06 May 2022 and processed using DSS, photoshop and Starnet V.2.    

[Adam1234]

Here's my entry, the Leo Triplet. Imaged between 2nd April and 5th May.  

3hrs each of R, G and B. Captured using SkyWatcher ED80, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro, EQ-R Pro. Processed in PixInsight.

 

Adam

 

[tomato]

Here is 7.75 hrs of M106 and nearby galaxies, captured with the Esprit 150/IMX 571 OSC dual rig using 2 minute sub exposures.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP, PI and AP. Over half the data was captured in Nautical  darkness and varying levels of moonlight, so both APP's Light Pollution Removal tool and NoiseXTerminator were employed to improve the background.

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by tomato
Reprocess

[tomato]

And here is the Leo Triplet (plus a number of much smaller background galaxies which I guess make it eligible for the challenge) captured in April with the Esprit 150/IMX 571 dual rig. 

This is the best 180 x 2 min subs from 7 hours of data captured, about 40% of the data was captured in Nautical rather than astro darkness.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP,PI and AP. Presented at the original sampling of 0.714 arcsec per pixel.

 

[petevasey]

A bit tongue in cheek this one, because really only one substantial galaxy here, the beautiful NGC 3198 in Ursa Major.  Data captured on 6th and 25th March.  QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO unit.  Luminance 9x10min plus 15 x 15 min, RGB each 4x15 min.  All binned 2x2.  But loads of smaller galaxies, a dozen annotated in the second version.  Full size files attached.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by petevasey

[petevasey]

This just might be disallowed!  Over to the judges...  I'd imaged Virgo galaxies Messier 60 and NGC 4647 in 2021, but then along came the  NGC 4647 supernova in April 2022.  Weather was unkind, so although I got just enough Luminance data (8 x 10 min) on 27th April, I only got 1 sub each of RGB.  QSI 683 on RC10 with SX AO, all binned 2x2.  So I used the single RGB frames to colour the supernova, and the colour data from 2021 for the rest of the image.  Eek!  The seeing was actually better than 2021, so finer detail in 4647. But at least there are three other clearly visible edge on galaxies in the lower part of the image.  From left to right they are:  mag 15.4 PGC 42846, mag 13.8 NGC 4637 and mag 11.1 NGC 4638.  And top centre just visible mag 17.45 PGC 1397198.  Full size file attached.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by petevasey

[tomato]

Here is another "widefield" view of the Virgo region, about 1.3 x 2.5 degrees, with M100 in the bottom LH corner and M99 in the top RH quadrant. A 4 panel mosaic of 30 x 2 mins on each panel captured with the Esprit 150/IMX 571 OSC dual rig. All the data was captured in Nautical darkness, but with the moon absent.

Calibrated, stacked and the mosaic assembled in APP, (1st LNC, 7 iterations, 20% MBB), processed in APP (LP removal tool really helping), PI (background neutralisation and photometric colour calibration on the stretched image) and NoiseXTerminator set at 0.25 denoise and 0.3 detail. Image capture scale 0.713 arcsec per pixel, but I have down sampled it in PI by a factor of x2, as the full file size (127MB) would not upload to the server.

 

Annotated

 

 

 

[peleks]

IC 342 Hidden Galaxy, taken from 9 to 18 March nights. LRGB image

exposures are 17x30minutes (8h30min) luminance, 8x 15min for each color (3x2hrs)

Taken with 250/1250 Newton, HEQ5 belt modded, Atik 490exm camera, off axis guider with ZWO Asi 1200mm as guidecam, Baader filters.

[tomato]

As the closing date for entries is fast approaching, this will probably be my final effort. Abell 2151, the Hercules Galaxy cluster, just under 4 hrs of data captured in Civil(!) and Nautical Darkness with 120 second subs using  the Esprit 150/IMX571OSC dual rig.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP and PI,  APP's LP removal tool and the PI NoiseXTerminator  plugin again making a big difference to the background.

Annotated

 

[Tomatobro]

Draco triplet.

NGC5982 eliptical Galaxy
NGC5981 Edge on Spiral Galaxy
NGC5985 Spiral Galaxy

These galaxies are probably not related and reside at different distances so the triplet is purely a line of sight effect. NGC 5985 is about 120 million light years away, NGC 5982 about 130 million years and the small edge on NGC 5981 about 100 million light years away.

NGC 5981 is quite a small dwarf galaxy. NGC 5982 and 5985 were found by William Herschel in 1788 but NGC 5981 had to wait until 1850 when it was found by J Stoney at Birr castle, probably with the 72".

NGC 5985 is an almost face on spiral. It is classified as a Seyfert type 1 galaxy with an active black hole at its nucleus. It is also classified as a LINER.

NGC 5982 is classified as an elliptical galaxy class E3. Although it looks quiescent now deep images reveal shells surrounding which are the results of a merger with another galaxy. These shells were found in the optical but were among the first to be discovered in the mid infra-red using data from Spitzer. NGC5982 may also be an active galaxy hiding a black hole. The merger probably happened about a billion years ago. Although it is an elliptical galaxy it also contains a young population of stars, perhaps as a result of the merger.

Telescope 10 inch RC
Camera ZWO ASI1600 MM

180 x 30 second exposures luminance
30 x 30 second exposures RGB

Imagies taken over the nights of 25th/26th and 27th May 2022

Stacked with APP and minor processing with GIMP

 

[tomato]

Well, I was mistaken, by dodging the clouds over the last few nights I have managed 154 x 2 mins on HCG 68 with the Esprit 150/IMX571 OSC dual rig, all captured in Nautical darkness.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, processed in APP,  PI and AP.

[alacant]

Hi everyone

Only just seen this one. How about the Hercules galaxy cluster? Hot in Alicante last night, but no excuses as we're still on our no-denoise campaign. So here we are, noise and all.

This is centred around ngc6054 at around 460 million light years. Apart from the stars, nothing much closer than that I don't think.

Thanks for looking and have really enjoyed looking through the entries. Wonderful shots.

700d + gso203, f5. ~4h @ ISO800 siril 1.1.0. startools 1.8.527-2

Edited May 30, 2022 by alacant

[MartinB]

This challenge is now closed.  The results will be announced within the next 2 weeks.

[Taraobservatory]

There are a few galaxies in there but not sure it qualifies as a cluster

Clear skies