Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631) (Bob Schiff)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: NGC 4627 · NGC 4631 · Whale Galaxy

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Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

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Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Caldwell 32 (aka NGC 4631 and the Whale Galaxy) is a barred spiral galaxy. It is seen edge-on and its profile resembles that of a whale. The galaxy is estimated to be 30 million lys from Earth and is found in the constellation Canes Venatici. The dwarf elliptical galaxy, NGC 4627 is seen above NGC 4631 in this image.

This is the second galaxy image I have taken using my Celestron C9.25 SCT. I am no longer using the Celestron dew heater ring for dew management. Instead, I am using a dew shield and dew heater strip. My star shapes are much better now. When using the dew heater ring the stars had distracting star spikes. I did collimate the scope before taking this image. This significantly improved the roundness of the stars.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9802358
PixInsight job	QCSQS6FCHWL6QW3H9RJ35P762LXXHVGZ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h42m06s.234
RA (top/left)	12h42m53s.747
RA (top/right)	12h41m21s.870
RA (bottom/right)	12h41m18s.697
RA (bottom/left)	12h42m51s.129

Dec (center)	+32°31′21″.37
Dec (top/left)	+32°38′48″.69
Dec (top/right)	+32°39′28″.84
Dec (bottom/right)	+32°23′53″.50
Dec (bottom/left)	+32°23′13″.90

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Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

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Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

Caldwell 32 (the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631)

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