The Interacting Galaxies of ARP 272

[Russ.Carpenter]

I recently downloaded the most recent version of StarTools 1.4 and was delighted to discover that it runs properly in the Mac OS. Ivo, thank you!

About a year ago I re-entered astronomy after a 30 year absence. When I discovered the limitations of the 32 bit version of StarTools, I took a tour through the land of PixInsight and Photoshop. Now, I am eager to resume my learning experience with StarTools.

These days, I’m concentrating on the peculiar galaxies that have been imaged by Hubble. Here is the NASA image of ARP 272. I don’t know how this image was produced, but the Hubble site recommends stretching in Fits Liberator and finishing in Photoshop.

ARP 272 From Hubblesite.jpg (392.6 KiB) Viewed 4044 times

And here is the image I produced in StarTools. I’m sure I made a zillion mistakes, but the StarTools “signature’ is unmistakable, with saturated colors throughout the image, including the cores of the galaxies.

Final 6.jpg (355.11 KiB) Viewed 4044 times

Another completely different image appears as the APOD for September 22, 2011. You can see it here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110922.html