Hubble Completes Massive Panoramic Image of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

The first image Hubble released of this galaxy with the WFC3 camera was in 2009. In 2010, a second portion of the galaxy was imaged with the WFC3 camera. Finally in 2012, the rest of the galaxy was captured. After the standard 1 year embargo time to give the principle investigator of the study time to publish their research on the data, the final sections of the raw data needed to construct a color image were released last month. The final mosaic is in 6 sections, and the version I processed into a color image used images shot through red, green, blue, and hydrogen alpha filters totaling several gigabytes of raw data. The completed image is over 100 megapixels in size at full resolution. It actually became difficult to work with the images once stitched together; my computer's 4 gigs of ram simply weren't enough. I managed to complete it, though the red, green, and blue channel alignment is not perfect due to distortions induced by the stitching process. Nevertheless these problems aren't even noticeable at a normal 1080p resolution. Here is a link to both the full resolution and 1080p versions of the image:
dropcanvas.com...
I also processed the raw data for two other galaxies whose data was released in August.
NGC 4605:
imageshack.us...
NGC 6503:
imageshack.us...

God is Big! God is Great!
what a wonderfull!!!

Nice stuff, thanks for putting it out here

reply to post by ngchunter


Those imageshack links have a zoom feature to play with. Like exploring a galaxy close up on your own terms. Theres this knot of stars at the top of one of those images...


Thanks for taking the time to put in the work and bring it here. Every time we get a better resolve to these "objects" I get a chill up my spine.

BEFORE


AFTER


WOW, I bet that somewhere in there, on one of those planets, there's a horse drinking coffee.

reply to post by MadHatter364

Can it have wings too?
Please say it can.

reply to post by Phage


SURE! Why the hell not?

Amazing job ngchunter, thank you!

I've uploaded the full image to www.gigapan.com... I hope that's ok with you. Methinks the image deserves being on APOD.

Some great vistas there. I'd love to see those nebulae in more detail.


Speaking of misaligned RGB, did you fist stitch the individual exposures into mosaics and then stack those mosaics into RGB? Maybe stacking the individual frames into RGB (so that the stars align) and then stitching the mosaic would align everything properly.

Very good for Dekstop wallpaper

Originally posted by wildespace
Amazing job ngchunter, thank you!

I've uploaded the full image to www.gigapan.com... I hope that's ok with you.

Agh! Actually I was going to try to rework the channel alignment before uploading to gigapan...

Speaking of misaligned RGB, did you fist stitch the individual exposures into mosaics and then stack those mosaics into RGB? Maybe stacking the individual frames into RGB (so that the stars align) and then stitching the mosaic would align everything properly.

Well I was going to upgrade my ram and then do it all manually in GIMP so that there is no distortion (I used Microsoft ICE which is much faster but can induce slight distortions), but I like your idea better. I didn't do it that way initially because I knew the color balance was going to need a lot of work after compositing, but there's really no reason I can think of that that step can't be delayed until after stitching is complete - I don't think the color balance being way off during stitching will affect anything. I'll try that, thanks.

Ok, I fixed the channel alignment. I went ahead and uploaded the result to gigapan here:
gigapan.com...
Additionally, I took down the misaligned full resolution version from dropcanvas and I'm uploading the corrected version in its place (it will be available under the same link as before when it's done uploading).

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by MadHatter364

 

Can it have wings too?
Please say it can.

If it's drinking Red Bull of course it can

reply to post by ngchunter


You made a fantastic image even more fantastic! The new image is going to my desktop wallpaper/

[double post]

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by MadHatter364

 

Can it have wings too?
Please say it can.

It has wings, but no longer for flying, they now use them for gliding through through the ocean.

Could Pinwheel galaxies jets reach our galaxy?

reply to post by Phage


What about farting skittles???

reply to post by ngchunter


This is really beautiful, and with the gigapan, extraordinary. Thanks for the thread, and it deserves another look for those of us who missed it.

reply to post by MadHatter364


It looks more like a cellular membrane like you would find inside our bodies.

Thanks Op, the image is truly amazing!
thanks for taking the time!
GJ!