CCD OBSERVING/RESEARCH PROJECT: NGC 3953

1. CCD OBSERVING/RESEARCH PROJECT: NGC 3953 By: Ekta Patel Date: April 7th, 2011 Instructor: J. West Course No: PHYS 2070 (NOAO, 2005)

2. Table of Contents • Basic Info • My Images • Image Comparison • Research Area • Repeated Calculation • Focus Area

3. Basic Information (Stellarium, 2010) • Barred spiral galaxy • Located 46 million light years away • Magnitude: 10.1 • Angular Size: 6’36” • Coordinates (Jan 1, 2001 @ 23:00) (Stellarium, 2010) • RA: 11 h 54 m 22.0s • DE: +52 D 16’ 20” • Rising earlier each night between January – March (our observing period) • Best month is April • Located in constellation Ursa Major • Use one of the stars from the constellation as a guide star • Member of the M109 Group of galaxies • Over 50 galaxies • Two supernovae have gone off in past decade • SN 2001 dp (Type Ia) • SN 2006 bp (Type II) (Moromisato, 2011) • (Moromisato, 2011)

4. Image Comparison GAO Image Date/Time Feb 8, 2011/ 22:05:00 Location Latitude: 49 38 min 43 s Longitude: 97 d, 7min, 20 s Telescope Used Evans 40 cm Detector Used Apogee U47 Exposure Time 33 minutes Field of View 7.0’ x 7.0’ STSciI DSS Image Date/Time May 7th, 1991/ 4:17:00 Location Latitude: 33.356 Longitude: 116.863 Telescope Used Oschin Schmidt - D Detector Used Photographic Plate Filter RG610 Exposure Time 72 minutes Field of View 7.0’ x 7.0’

5. Image Processing

6. Background Information Structural symmetry specifically in spiral arms of face-on spiral galaxies. Symmetry: “The quality of being made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis.” (Oxford American Dictionary, 2010) Asymmetry: “The lack of equivalence between parts or aspects of something; lack of symmetry.”(Oxford American Dictionary, 2010) General assumption: face-on spiral galaxies are mainly axi-symmetric (Foresman, 2007)

7. Background Information Fourier techniques show deviations in symmetry exist for spiral galaxies. (Zarisky, 1995) Use of symmetry of spiral arms as a morphological indicator: started by Elmegreen and Elmegreen in 1982  “symmetric images of galaxies …allowed for underlying spiral structure to be examined closely…revealed many spirals have hidden features (ie: triple arm patterns)” (Conselice, 2007) Classification of galaxies includes high redshifted galaxies (ie: those seen in HDS telescope images)  regular classification is not sufficient because they galaxies are faint and irregular. solution 1: automated classification through computer models to assign galaxies classical morphological types solution 2: use structural symmetry measurements for classification First we must study its usefulness and examine limitations on nearby galaxies • (Conselice, 1997)

8. Research Paper “The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 • (Conselice, 1997) Research Topic: What symmetry in a galaxy can imply. Objects Studied: 35 face-on spiral (early, intermediate and late types) 8 elliptical selected from the public FTP site of galaxy images large, nearby with high-surface brightness various morphologies Images in R (650 nm) and J (450 nm) bands used 1.1 m Hall telescope @ Lowell Obs (March 24-April 4 1989) CCD camera: 320 X 512 pixel RCA 30 min exposures for R band 45 min exposure for J band

9. Research Paper “The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 Method: Subtract background stars + sky background Rotate 180 degrees about the center point (brightest region in the middle) Subtract rotated image from original Square the pixels in residual image Divide the sum of pixels in residual image by 2 times the sum of the squared pixels of original image Equation: A=0 Perfectly symmetric A=1 Completely asymmetric

10. Research Paper “The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 Potential Limitations: Distant galaxies have lower resolution Closer galaxies have higher resolution Are these limitations present? plot of symmetry vs. distance slight distance effect is noticed thus, caution should be used when applying this method to galaxies in different red-shift ranges • (Conselice, 1997)

11. Research Paper “The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 • (Conselice, 2007) • J band images are more asymmetic on average than R band • Most galaxies were found to be not extremely asymmetric • NGC 3953 was right in the middle  average asymmetry • Strong correlation between asymmetry and morphological types: • Low #’s = early system • High #’s = late-type system • Trend noticeable between Hubble morphology & sym. • As galaxies reach later- type spirals, asymmetry increases. Suggests, Hubble Sequence is on increasing optical asymmetry. Results: (Conselice, 1997)

12. Research Paper “The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 Symmetry colour plot has a strong correlation Thus degree of symmetry can be used to measure global stellar populations within a galaxy. asymmetric galaxies have stellar populations that are blue  recently formed massive young stars. Due to patchy star formation throughout the disk older stellar populations are smoothed out through time, thus more symmetric Global asymmetries affect R and J bands equally Asymmetries are causes by recently formed stars, thus can be used to measure star formation rate. • (Conselice, 1997)

13. Research Paper Findings“The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies”Christopher J. Conselice 1997 Conclusions: Strong correlation between asymmetry and colour  useful for finding one, when other is unknown Using symmetry, physical parameters of galaxies which otherwise would not be measureable are reasonably estimated. Limited, but powerful for morphological and physical information of a galaxy.

14. NGC 3953 Measurements SUBTRACT Background Subtracted & Star Subtracted + Flipped 180o Original Image: Background & Star Subtracted

15. NGC 3953 Measurements Result of Subtraction

16. NGC 3953 Measurements DIVIDE 2 X (Original Image)2 (Result of Subtraction)2

17. NGC 3953 Measurements Calculations: A2= (73563 x 81283.44)/ 2(73563 x 8284.404) A=0.20 (for 550 nm) Sources of Error: different wavelengths are being compared Star subtraction method was not perfect Background subtraction method was not 100% perfect

18. Focus Area: Colour Processing Techniques GIMP/Photoshop – levels adjustment (method from class) GIMP Colourize Tool– playing with hue/saturation Stack to RGB LUT 2.2 RGB Composer Plugin Filters: Ultraviolet (u), Green (g), Red (r), Near Infrared (i), Infrared (z) Corresponding Wavelength (Angstroms): 3543, 4770, 6231, 7624, 9134 NOTE: All of the following images are taken from Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

19. Level Control in GIMP Advantages: Highest control Disadvantage: Time consuming & multiple steps

20. Level Control in GIMP

21. Level Control in GIMP

22. Colourize Tool Uses GIMP/Photo Shop Disadvantage: Less control Advantage: Simple and Quick

23. Colourize Tool

24. Stack to RGB Open stake of 3 grey-scale images Convert to 8-bit Image  Colour  Stack to RGB

25. Stack to RGB

26. Up to 3 gray-scale images • Each image can have multiple colors assigned LUT Panel 2.2

27. LUT Panel 2.2

28. RGB Composer Plugin Works for up to 3 gray-scale images Simple & easy to use. Take only a few minutes!

29. RGB Composer Plugin

30. My Images RGB Composer Plug-In GIMP Level Controls Stack To RGB LUT Panel 2.2 Colour Processor Tool Stack To RGB

31. Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. 1994. The Digitized Sky Survey http://stdatu.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form Chereau F, Gates M, Kerr N, Marcos D, Marinov B. et al. 2010. Stellarium Conselice C. 1997. The Symmetry, Color, and Morphology of Galaxies: Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1251-1255 Haynes G, Haynes. 2005. Best of AOP: NGC 3953: T.http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n3953.html Moromisato G. 2011. NGC 3953 http://neurohack.com/astrotourist/NGC3953.html This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. References