Distant Vista: NGC1055 Galaxy in Cetus the Whale

[Warren Spreng]

OK, a different type of landscape! NGC 1055 is an edge on galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It is estimated to be 53 million light years away and 115,000 light years across so a large system. This was imaged with an AT6RC telescope riding on an Atlas EQ-G mount. The cameras used were an Atik 314L+ mono for the luminance channel, 40 exposures of 10 minutes each, and with the Atik 314L+OSC for the RGB channels, 40 exposures of 10 minutes each as well. Images were aligned and stacked with flats and darks in Deep Sky Stacker and then processed in PS CS4 using Levels, Curves and some desaturation and NR of the background sky. So when I don't have my Canon T3i in my hands I use a slightly less portable system for other imaging!:bg3: Hope you enjoy.

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[Diane Miller]

Amazing!! I love the starbursts -- I assume they're from the telescope structure (not sure what it is called). Looks like there is another very small (well, very distant) galaxy almost behind a star near the lower left.

My astrophotography buddy has an Atlas and I'm thinking about a Sirius. I assume you need autoguiding at those exposure times. How long can you expose without guiding -- or are there too many factors that affect the number? I'd rather do what I can without guiding before I think about getting into it.

What would be the equivalent focal length here, including any crop from the ATIK? Is it a smaller sensor than the Canon APS-C?

[Warren Spreng]

Amazing!! I love the starbursts -- I assume they're from the telescope structure (not sure what it is called). Looks like there is another very small (well, very distant) galaxy almost behind a star near the lower left.

My astrophotography buddy has an Atlas and I'm thinking about a Sirius. I assume you need autoguiding at those exposure times. How long can you expose without guiding -- or are there too many factors that affect the number? I'd rather do what I can without guiding before I think about getting into it.



What would be the equivalent focal length here (including any crop)?

Thanks Diane! The starbursts come from the light diffracting around the support vanes that hold the secondary mirror in place. This scope is f/9 and the focal length here is 1370mm. There was very little crop just to get rid of the stacking artifacts on the edges of the image.

A Sirius Mount is a good one, it has the same motors as the Atlas, it is just a bit lighter and supports less of a load, but many beginners use that mount, and if you don't expect to put a large scope on the mount it works out great. When you read up on the weight that a mount will support that usually is referring to the weight used for visual purposes. For Astrophotography, unless it is a really high end mount, you can figure that the mount will carry about half that reported weight for a good steady imaging session.

Depending upon your Polar Alignment, whether you have incorporated Periodic Error Correction, and good balance on the mount, you can expect to track accurately for 60 to 120 seconds without guiding (on a Sirius mount). Above that you would need auto guiding, unless you are talking about a high end mount and some of those can do very long exposures without auto guiding. It is funny, I was really nervous about trying auto guiding and once I did I wondered why I had ever waited!!

Oh, and yes, there are actually two smaller galaxies in the image, the one you noticed ( I would say it is on the lower right of the image) and then one just off to the upper right of the large galaxy next to a very small blue star.

[Don Railton]

Hi Warren, I admire the effort it takes to get an image like this...Good effort. The Nebular is very impressive, although the bright star keeps stealing my eye...

DON

[Warren Spreng]

Hi Warren, I admire the effort it takes to get an image like this...Good effort. The Nebular is very impressive, although the bright star keeps stealing my eye...

DON

Thanks Don, yes, sometimes it is tough to not include brighter stars due to the location of the object in the sky. The great thing about galaxies is the number of them that can be imaged with my setup can keep me busy capturing them for the rest of my life!:S3:

[Diane Miller]

Ooops -- I meant lower right -- my husband often has cause to say "Your other right..."

How incredible to be able to look into the universe like this! 53 million light years is a next door neighbor!

I've been reading Timothy Ferris' books -- do you now them? They are wonderful -- and he lives about 20 miles from us. How I would love to run into him somewhere!

[Warren Spreng]

Ooops -- I meant lower right -- my husband often has cause to say "Your other right..."

How incredible to be able to look into the universe like this! 53 million light years is a next door neighbor!

I've been reading Timothy Ferris' books -- do you now them? They are wonderful -- and he lives about 20 miles from us. How I would love to run into him somewhere!

I have not heard of those, I'll have to check them out.

[Diane Miller]

http://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Ferris/e/B000APWB66/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1449687178&sr=1-2-ent

I saw a rave review of "Seeing in the Dark" on some astronomy web site but can't find it again. I bought it (I LOVE the used prices on Amazon!) and couldn't put it down. After about 10 pages I ordered the others. I'm halfway through the stack and loving every word. The universe is a strange place....

[Warren Spreng]

http://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Ferris/e/B000APWB66/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1449687178&sr=1-2-ent

I saw a rave review of "Seeing in the Dark" on some astronomy web site but can't find it again. I bought it (I LOVE the used prices on Amazon!) and couldn't put it down. After about 10 pages I ordered the others. I'm halfway through the stack and loving every word. The universe is a strange place....

Thanks! I have heard of this series, my brother has read them. I'll have to see if I can borrow them from him!

[Arthur Morris]

Warren. Mazel tov on a most impressive image. I can only imagine the time and effort involved. I will share this link with my brilliant autistic grandson Idris. He is seven and has wanted to be an astro-photographer since he was six. He will be eight soon. Many thanks for sharing. a

[Warren Spreng]

Warren. Mazel tov on a most impressive image. I can only imagine the time and effort involved. I will share this link with my brilliant autistic grandson Idris. He is seven and has wanted to be an astro-photographer since he was six. He will be eight soon. Many thanks for sharing. a

Thanks Arthur! I sent you a PM with a link to the Astrobin website where I post all of my Astro images that your grandson might enjoy.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Warren. There is some amazing stuff there. I am sure that Idris will be thrilled. You should add that link to this post.

BTW, what is Prom???

a

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Warren. There is some amazing stuff there. I am sure that Idris will be thrilled. You should add that link to this post.

BTW, what is Prom???

a
http://www.astrobin.com/users/rigel123/
Great, here is that link, and a prom is short for prominence which is used to describe various bright gaseous features which extend above the surface of the sun

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for all Warren. Does your astrophotography have anything to do with your job? a

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks for all Warren. Does your astrophotography have anything to do with your job? a

My pleasure! No connection with my job, it has been a hobby of mine for about 6 years now, and I have been into astronomy most of my life. Now retired I hope to be able to spend more time at it if I get more clear nights than we have had around here for quite a while!

[Arthur Morris]

Good luck with the clear skies. a