New Galaxy Image Sets from ATEO-3

Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, the 12.5" f/9 Ritchey Chretien (ATEO-3) located at Deep Sky Chile has been very busy as of late producing additional image sets for Starbase. The latest additions to Starbase from ATEO-3 are image sets of Messier 83, the "Southern Pinwheel Galaxy", and NGC 1313, also known as the "Topsy Turvy Galaxy".

Messier 83 - the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy imaged on ATEO-3 and processed by Franck Jobard from Deep Sky Chile, now available for download from Starbase.

Messier 83 or M83, also known as NGC 5236, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light-years away in the constellation borders of Hydra and Centaurus. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille discovered M83 on February 23, 1752, at the Cape of Good. Charles Messier added it to his catalog of nebulous objects (now known as the Messier Catalogue) in March 1781. It is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky and is visible with binoculars. Its nickname the Southern Pinwheel derives from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in the northern constellation Ursa Major.

Starbase image set "M83 - Lum (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" has over 10 hours of Luminance image data and set "M83 - RGB (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" consists of 3 hours each of Red, Green, and Blue image data. 

Image Set Rates:

• M83 - Lum (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is only $24.40 USD for Education and $30.50 USD for Standard. 


• M83 - RGB (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is only $21.60 USD for Education and $27.00 USD for Standard.

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NGC 1313 - the Topsy Turvy Galaxy imaged on ATEO-3 by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra from Deep Sky Chile is now available for download from Starbase.

NGC 1313 is a field galaxy and a barred spiral galaxy discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on 27 September 1826. It has a diameter of about 50,000 light-years or about half the size of the Milky Way. NGC 1313 lies within the Virgo Supercluster. NGC 1313 has a strikingly uneven shape and its axis of rotation is not exactly in its center. The galaxy also shows strong starburst activity and associated super-shells. NGC 1313 is dominated by scattered patches of intense star formation, which gives the galaxy a rather ragged appearance. The uneven shape, the ragged appearance, and the strong starburst can all be explained by a galactic collision in the past. However, NGC 1313 seems to be an isolated galaxy and has no direct neighbors. Therefore, it is not clear whether it has swallowed a small companion in its past.

Sources: Wikipedia.

Starbase image set "NGC 1313 - Lum (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy" has over 8 hours of Luminance image data and set "NGC 1313 - RGB (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy" consists of over 7 hours of Red, Green, and Blue image data.

Image Set Rates:

• NGC1313 - Lum (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy is only $20.00 USD Education and $25.00 USD Standard.


• NGC1313 - RGB (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy is only $18.40 USD for Education and $23.00 USD Standard.

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Deep-Sky Targets for New Moon - April 2021

The New Moon is fast approaching! Here are some deep-sky target suggestions for imaging on the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) remote telescope locations by Insight Observatory's partner, Telescopius.com...

	M4 - Globular Cluster Constellation Scorpius Mag.: 5.40 - Size: 36' RA 16hr 23' 35" DEC -27º 28' 30" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	Tr 16 - Open Cluster Constellation Carina Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 10' RA 10hr 45' 06" DEC -60º 16' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy Constellation Ursa Major Mag.: 7.90 – Size: 28.8' RA 14hr 03' 12" DEC 54º 20' 58" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 70.0º at 02:34 hrs.
	M67 - Open Cluster Constellation Cancer Mag.: 6.90 – Size: 25' RA 08hr 51' 17" DEC 11º 48' 59" ATEO-2A - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 67.5º at 21:22 hrs.
	M8 - Lagoon Nebula Constellation Sagittarius Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 45' RA 18hr 03' 41" DEC -25º 37' 00" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 84.9° at 07:09 hrs.
	M3 - Globular Cluster Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 6.30 – Size: 18' RA 13hr 42' 11" DEC 28º 22' 34" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 84.1º at 02:13 hrs.
	IC 2948 - Bright Nebula Constellation Centaurus Mag.: 7.00 – Size: 1.3º RA 11hr 39' 24" DEC -64º 31' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 56.0° at 00:45 hrs.
	HCG 44 - Galaxy Cluster Constellation Leo Mag.: 10.00 – Size: 16.4' RA 10hr 18' 00" DEC 21º 48' 43" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 77.5º at 22:49 hrs.
	NGC 3324 - Gabriela Mistral Nebula Constellation Carina Mag.: 6.70 – Size: 16' RA 10hr 37' 18" DEC -59º 19' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 60.8° at 23:43 hrs.
	NGC 5033 - Spiral Galaxy Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 10.20 – Size: 10.7' RA 13hr 13' 27" DEC 36º 35' 36" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 87.7º at 01:44 hrs

Help support Insight Observatory's educational outreach efforts by submitting your deep-sky image requests today on our Personal Image Request (PIR) application or logging in to your ATEO Portal account to request on our Basic or Advanced Image Request forms.

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NGC 5907 - Galaxy with a Tail

NGC 5907, also known as Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, is a warped spiral galaxy about 150,000 light-years across and is located in the constellation Draco around 50 million light-years away from earth.

Back in 2019 after completing my project on the M63 Sunflower galaxy, I decided to search for new objects to image using Insight Observatory's 16" f3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector, ATEO-1, remote telescope. While I was surfing the internet, I came across an interesting galaxy. I made sure that it is visible in the northern hemisphere as ATEO-1 is located in the dark skies of New Mexico. I researched a bit more about this edge-on galaxy and found that tidal streams create a loop around this galaxy. I found a couple more images where there were two loops wrapped around the galaxy. I was really excited to capture this galaxy remotely as it was one of a kind and I could not find a similar galaxy that had two loops. I made a decision to capture this galaxy and I decided to email Michael Petrasko and Muir Evenden, Co-founders of Insight Observatory. As the tidal streams were very faint, it would mean investing a lot of imaging time. We started out and collected 5 hours' worth of luminance data with ATEO-1.

NGC 5907, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy in the constellation Draco displays its tidal loop and stream. Imaged on ATEO-1 with 29 hours of luminance image data combined with color image data from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Image data was acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra and Michael Petrasko.

After capturing 5 hours' worth of image data from ATEO-1, I thought we could get some hint of the double loop but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, although a wisp of the upper tidal stream was visible. I decided to research this a bit more and I found out that this stuff is very faint and probably needs 20-30 hours of exposure to reveal the kind of details I was looking for. Unfortunately, ATEO-1 was shut down for many months due to maintenance so I had to continue this project when it was back online. Michael reminded me about this project that was lagging behind so I decided to get back to work on it.

NGC 5907 was imaged on ATEO-1 with 29 hours of luminance image data.  Image data was acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra and Michael Petrasko.

After a couple of days, I read an article from Sky and Telescope magazine that astronomers found that those double loops actually do not exist. My mind was completely blown and I shared this with Michael. This subject was getting more interesting day by day. I also came across a couple of images that showed that the loops do exist. I was really looking forward to working on this data and thanks to Michael and Muir, they managed to grab another 10 hours' worth of data for me. I jumped on my computer to process it and I was expecting the double loop to pop up now but there was still no sign of it. I was unable to believe that even after 15 hours of exposure time with this really fast equipment under some of the darkest skies of the US, the double loop did not show up. I asked Michael to change the binning to 2x2, doubling the CCD camera's sensitivity. The data comprised of around 10 hours of bin 2x2 and 5 hours of bin 1x1. I then asked Michael if he could try imaging more data. The weather cooperated and we were able to gather 5 more hours of data. Once again, I looked on my screen with the expectation to see the double loop in my data, however, it looked like the image data was showing me something else. I processed the data and inverted it and found that the tidal streams were going downward and forming a structure similar to a tail.

I had many doubts regarding all the stuff that we captured so I quickly approached my friend Xavier Strottner. He has discovered many objects in space so I thought that he would have better knowledge and understanding of this. I had a great conversation with Xavier and he clarified all my doubts. He shared a few research papers with me so that I can read and understand more about this galaxy.

Inverted images of NGC 5907 imaged by the Dragonfly Telephoto Array (top) and ATEO-1 (bottom).

After working on 20 hours of luminance data, I started questioning whether the loops existed as they should have shown up.  I just had one more doubt that maybe we are not going for enough exposure length so I requested that Michael and Muir image 1200 sec sub exposers with binning 2x2 and erase all of my doubts regarding this double loop. Soon we were able to capture 4 hours' worth of 1200-second image data and combine it with the rest of the data taken over the last year. I compared the 4 hours with the 5 hours we captured earlier in 2019. I could not find much of a difference between both. I requested Michael combine all data and make a master stack of it. After 24.5 hours of imaging time, there was still no sign of those double loops. However, I was very happy that we, amateurs, could capture the extremely faint tail that probably no one could do except the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The Dragonfly telescope is an array of 48 lenses in two clusters of 24 and is equivalent of a 1.0 m diameter f/0.4 refractor. I also contacted a few astronomers working on these tidal streams to see if maybe they would publish a scientific paper on this in the future about our latest imaging on this data.

I would like to thank Michael, Muir, and Xavier for providing excellent support throughout this project. I really enjoyed working together as a team. This project has really inspired me to image the entire tidal stream survey and I am looking forward to doing more such projects at Insight Observatory using ATEO-1.

Personally, I also assume that "Team Insight" has only managed to capture the faint stellar tail in the amateur astrophotography world. 

Utkarsh Mishra
Lucknow, India

**All 29 hours of image data for NGC 5907 are available for download from Insight Observatory's image set repository "Starbase".

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