On the edge

Folks - I was kicking around last night imaging some galaxies when I came across this - NGC 891. Thought you might like it.

I cranked up the levels so it looked OK in the web page so it might look a bit grainy.

Cheers

Dave



Image details:

Object - NGC 891
Location - Andromeda
Date/time - 06/10/05 00:02 UTC
Exposure - 90 sec
Image no. - 10
Imager - DSI
Filters - None
Mount - AP1200
Scope - C8 SCT @ 6.3
Software - Autostar Suite, Photoshop 7

Fantastic image , NGC891 a galaxy i have only seen once visually all i remember it was bloody hard to find it via star hopping and then straining through the eyepiece to see its sliver of light.

Ronan Newman
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie : :D

Good image Dave. The grainyness of it, in my opinion, simply adds to the galaxy's nebulosity!

Seanie.

Great capture of an edge on galaxy Dave.

Looks amazing.

* Did you check it for any SN? and where you SN hunting at the time?

Great image Dave.
It has a very ghostly appearance about it,
The more I look at your images, the more I'm convinced that tracking is the absolute critical factor here.

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I can't imagine what it would be like trying to visually observe this - its mag 10. It seems that even though this seems to be a 'bright' galaxy, galaxies in general don't fare too well in the eyepiece. What I mean is that a mag 10 star would be an easy catch - but a mag 10 galaxy is much harder.

As for SN hunting, I guess I have to admit to checking Aladin and seeing if my image had anything new in it :lol: But I was actually having a go at seeing what it would be like to image a lot of galaxies in a night, a la SN searching. I have to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought... But more of that later

I guess I have come to the same conclusion regarding tracking. My first images with the DSI exhibited a horrible, smeared, noisy background. The stars and object seemed OK but the background was awful. I suspect also that fainter detail in the images I produced were swallowed up with noise.

Now, with the improved tracking, the images are clearer, backgrounds are smoother and faint detail is coming through. I've even started to really notice focus defects on very dim stars. I'd say a lot of that is down to the tracking ability of the mount.

I think I've still a lot of improving to do though.

Cheers

Dave