homcavobservatory
WhaleGalaxy_NGC4631_20190406_HomCavObservatory_ReSizedDown2HD
Update Oct. 7, 2019 - A wide-field image of this area, shot simultaneously with the above and also showing the gravitationally interacting nearby "Hockey Stick' galaxy, can be found at the link attached here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48859476636/
Object Details: Lying approximately 30 million light-years from Earth, 'The Whale Galaxy' (NGC 4631) is an edge-on barred spiral whose wedge-like shape gives rise to it's nickname. It is gavitationally interacting with the nearby dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 (visible directly below the Whale in this image) and contains a central starburst (i.e. a region of extremely intense star formation).
Similar in size to our own Milky Way galaxy, visually it spans about 15 x 3 arcminutes in our sky (i.e. lengthwise, approximately have the diameter of the full moon). Glowing at magnitude 9.8 in the constellation Canes Venatici, it is detectable in small scopes as a thin sliver of light and it makes for a spectacular object in larger instruments.
Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory on the evening of April 6, 2019 using an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a Canon 700D DSLR tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. This in turn was guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor.
This is my first attempt at imaging this object, and as such is a test consisting of a (relatively speaking) very short stack totaling only 45 minutes of exposure (not including darks, flats & bias frames). Although I was fairly pleased with the result, it contains more noise in the outer regions than I would prefer and I will therefore look forward to re-imaging this object in the future using a longer total exposure.
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here it has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.
WhaleGalaxy_NGC4631_20190406_HomCavObservatory_ReSizedDown2HD
Update Oct. 7, 2019 - A wide-field image of this area, shot simultaneously with the above and also showing the gravitationally interacting nearby "Hockey Stick' galaxy, can be found at the link attached here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48859476636/
Object Details: Lying approximately 30 million light-years from Earth, 'The Whale Galaxy' (NGC 4631) is an edge-on barred spiral whose wedge-like shape gives rise to it's nickname. It is gavitationally interacting with the nearby dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 (visible directly below the Whale in this image) and contains a central starburst (i.e. a region of extremely intense star formation).
Similar in size to our own Milky Way galaxy, visually it spans about 15 x 3 arcminutes in our sky (i.e. lengthwise, approximately have the diameter of the full moon). Glowing at magnitude 9.8 in the constellation Canes Venatici, it is detectable in small scopes as a thin sliver of light and it makes for a spectacular object in larger instruments.
Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory on the evening of April 6, 2019 using an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a Canon 700D DSLR tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. This in turn was guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor.
This is my first attempt at imaging this object, and as such is a test consisting of a (relatively speaking) very short stack totaling only 45 minutes of exposure (not including darks, flats & bias frames). Although I was fairly pleased with the result, it contains more noise in the outer regions than I would prefer and I will therefore look forward to re-imaging this object in the future using a longer total exposure.
Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here it has been resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.