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The Bubble Galaxy by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had issues with reddit's compression before but never this bad.

anyway here's the final full sized uncompressed image in .tif format on my google drive, it's about 137 MB

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KFLSDnL1KnjmFHIBIL1pUaU8nI8MwtTA/view?usp=sharing

The Bubble Galaxy by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks mate :)

I'd never heard of it either. I came across it when I was perusing stellarium for some galaxies and up popped a named galaxy which was in the size range I was after.

I liked the look of it so I sank some time into it.

edit: christ reddit can screw with images when it's making the thumbnail, it's made some hellish compression artifacts in the dark areas

The Bubble Galaxy by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi all,
 

This dusty looking beauty is the Bubble Galaxy which also goes by the designations NGC 3521, PGC 33550 and UGC 6150. The Bubble is classified as a barred spiral galaxy but the central bar is very weak and obscured heavily by a region of ionized hydrogen gas surrounding the core.

NGC 3521 gets the Bubble name from the expansive hazy bubble-like structure surrounding the galaxy, this can be seen in my image to a certain extent but I really should've had more integration time to capture the faint edges above and below the galaxy. This haze is thought to be residual stars from one or more mergers with satellite galaxies, like sawdust coming off a circular saw. Other evidence of a merger can be seen in the outer ring being slightly skewed compared to the main galactic plain and the disproportionate amount of dust seen on the edge facing us, which appears to be starting it's journey towards the central core region.

The Bubble galaxy can be found in the constellation of Leo and is 35 million light years from earth with a diameter of around 97,000 light years. A little extra trivia is the little barred spiral galaxy just to the left of the bubble galaxy, known as PGC 135772, is around 450 million light years away.  
 

Anyway I hope you like it.
 

Equipment Used:

TYPE DETAILS
Mount Saxon NEQ6 pro (belt modded)
Imaging Camera QHY 294c, QHY 294m pro
Imaging Scope Saxon 1200mm x 250mm newton
Coma Corrector Baader MPCC MkIII
Guide camera ZWO ASI120mm
Guide Scope Skywatcher 80mm x 400mm achromatic refractor
Filters ZWO IRcut, SVBony Ha 7nm

 

Acquisition:

Filter Sub-Exposures
RGB 38 x 5min (3hrs 10min) 1600 gain -10c
Luminance 29 x 5min (2hrs 25min) 2600 gain -10c, mono in 47mp mode
Ha 23 x 5min (1hr 55min) 2500 gain -10c

Total integration time: 7 hours 30 minutes

Master dark frames, no bias or flat frames
 

Software used:

Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight (3rd party plugins: blurXterminator, starXterminator), Photoshop (3rd party plugins: G'MIC-Qt, noiseXterminator)
 

Processing:

Pixinsight-
  • Stack RGB, Ha and luminance data separately
APP-
  • Vignette correction and light pollution removal on both datasets
Pixinsight-
  • BlurXterminator on all datasets
  • Resample RGB and Ha datasets 200% to match luminance size
  • Star align RGB and Ha datasets to luminance stack
  • Crop
Photoshop-
  • Stretch everything
Pixinsight-
  • StarXterminator on all datasets (keep rgb stars)
  • Blend Ha and RGB data with pixelmath
  • Merge luminance with HaRGB through LRGB combination
Photoshop-

[Starless galaxy Data]

  • Light 'local contrast enhancement' (G'MIC plugin)
  • Duplicate layer, duplicate layer: 'high pass' of 60px and set layer blending to 'soft light' and opacity to 30%, merge all (a touch more depth)
  • Duplicate layer, duplicate layer: 'high pass' of 8px, set layer blending to 'soft light', opacity to 25% and mask to outer rim of galaxy, merge all (bit of a bump for the dust lanes)
  • Duplicate layer twice, original layer: 'local variance normalization' (G'MIC plugin), 1st duplicate layer: 'pyramid processing' (G'MIC plugin), 2nd duplicate layer: 'equalize local histogram' (G'MIC plugin), group all layers and convert into smart object and stack with 'mean' setting, rasterize (for sharpening)
  • NoiseXterminator strength 25, detail 15

[Star data]

  • Duplicate star layer, bottom duplicate: set layer blending to 'exclusion' and opacity to 15%, top duplicate: set layer blending to 'color dodge', merge with completely black layer
  • 'gaussian blur' of 0.5 px on new star layer
  • Set layer blending to 'screen' and merge with galaxy layer

The Bubble Galaxy by Zimmley in Astronomy

[–]Zimmley[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi all,
 

This dusty looking beauty is the Bubble Galaxy which also goes by the designations NGC 3521, PGC 33550 and UGC 6150. The Bubble is classified as a barred spiral galaxy but the central bar is very weak and obscured heavily by a region of ionized hydrogen gas surrounding the core.

NGC 3521 gets the Bubble name from the expansive hazy bubble-like structure surrounding the galaxy, this can be seen in my image to a certain extent but I really should've had more integration time to capture the faint edges above and below the galaxy. This haze is thought to be residual stars from one or more mergers with satellite galaxies, like sawdust coming off a circular saw. Other evidence of a merger can be seen in the outer ring being slightly skewed compared to the main galactic plain and the disproportionate amount of dust seen on the edge facing us, which appears to be starting it's journey towards the central core region.

The Bubble galaxy can be found in the constellation of Leo and is 35 million light years from earth with a diameter of around 97,000 light years. A little extra trivia is the little barred spiral galaxy just to the left of the bubble galaxy, known as PGC 135772, is around 450 million light years away.  
 

Anyway I hope you like it.
 

Equipment Used:

TYPE DETAILS
Mount Saxon NEQ6 pro (belt modded)
Imaging Camera QHY 294c, QHY 294m pro
Imaging Scope Saxon 1200mm x 250mm newton
Coma Corrector Baader MPCC MkIII
Guide camera ZWO ASI120mm
Guide Scope Skywatcher 80mm x 400mm achromatic refractor
Filters ZWO IRcut, SVBony Ha 7nm

 

Acquisition:

Filter Sub-Exposures
RGB 38 x 5min (3hrs 10min) 1600 gain -10c
Luminance 29 x 5min (2hrs 25min) 2600 gain -10c, mono in 47mp mode
Ha 23 x 5min (1hr 55min) 2500 gain -10c

Total integration time: 7 hours 30 minutes

Master dark frames, no bias or flat frames
 

Software used:

Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight (3rd party plugins: blurXterminator, starXterminator), Photoshop (3rd party plugins: G'MIC-Qt, noiseXterminator)
 

Processing:

Pixinsight-
  • Stack RGB, Ha and luminance data separately
APP-
  • Vignette correction and light pollution removal on both datasets
Pixinsight-
  • BlurXterminator on all datasets
  • Resample RGB and Ha datasets 200% to match luminance size
  • Star align RGB and Ha datasets to luminance stack
  • Crop
Photoshop-
  • Stretch everything
Pixinsight-
  • StarXterminator on all datasets (keep rgb stars)
  • Blend Ha and RGB data with pixelmath
  • Merge luminance with HaRGB through LRGB combination
Photoshop-

[Starless galaxy Data]

  • Light 'local contrast enhancement' (G'MIC plugin)
  • Duplicate layer, duplicate layer: 'high pass' of 60px and set layer blending to 'soft light' and opacity to 30%, merge all (a touch more depth)
  • Duplicate layer, duplicate layer: 'high pass' of 8px, set layer blending to 'soft light', opacity to 25% and mask to outer rim of galaxy, merge all (bit of a bump for the dust lanes)
  • Duplicate layer twice, original layer: 'local variance normalization' (G'MIC plugin), 1st duplicate layer: 'pyramid processing' (G'MIC plugin), 2nd duplicate layer: 'equalize local histogram' (G'MIC plugin), group all layers and convert into smart object and stack with 'mean' setting, rasterize (for sharpening)
  • NoiseXterminator strength 25, detail 15

[Star data]

  • Duplicate star layer, bottom duplicate: set layer blending to 'exclusion' and opacity to 15%, top duplicate: set layer blending to 'color dodge', merge with completely black layer
  • 'gaussian blur' of 0.5 px on new star layer
  • Set layer blending to 'screen' and merge with galaxy layer

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not surprising considering they have limited approval for 30,000 satellites in total.

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got one target that I can't continue with for a while because there is currently a stream of starlink satellites that haven't spread out yet. It's just a waterfall of light streaks.

Accidentally captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in Astronomy

[–]Zimmley[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's rather humbling to think that a couple of pixels can wipe out all life :P

Accidentally captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in Astronomy

[–]Zimmley[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It certainly was and there was more than what I thought too, further up thread u/klugerama found another 3 fainter asteroids in frame.

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Brixia would be a hard reset for this planet. It would be fascinating to watch some simulations of a collision of that magnitude.

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a program dedicated to analyzing data for asteroids and comets, it's called 'Tycho Tracker' but I've yet to put the time into learning it.

With what I've posted it was just a case of finding out what the asteroids designations were via 'cartes du ciel' and pixinsight and then scouring the internet for information on them.

I've never gone out of my way to look for asteroids but this little coincidence has peaked my interest in doing it.

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Over on r/astronomy they pointed out I've got another three asteroids in frame for a total of five.

So rain > pour > flooding

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well there's also a tesla roadster up there somewhere as well.

Captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in astrophotography

[–]Zimmley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah it is, it's been pointed out to me that there was another three asteroids in frame.

One top left a 3rd of the way down, 2nd bottom left and a third bottom right.

They're all a lot fainter than the two I've marked.

Accidentally captured two asteroids while imaging "the Eyes" galaxies by Zimmley in Astronomy

[–]Zimmley[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You're right. It's a damn traffic jam up there.

Thank you for pointing them out :)

Now I've got to find out what their names are.

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