20220308 - NGC 4656/7 & NGC 4631 - Playing Hockey with a whale

What’s in the picture(s)

NGC 4656 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_4656_and_NGC_4657
Quote: “NGC 4656/57 is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy located in the constellationCanes Venatici and is sometimes informally called the Hockey Stick Galaxies or the Crowbar Galaxy. Its unusual shape is thought to be due to an interaction between NGC 4656, NGC 4631, and NGC 4627. The galaxy is a member of the NGC 4631 Group. A Luminous Blue Variable in "super-outburst" was discovered in NGC 4656/57 on March 21, 2005.”

NGC 4631 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_4631
Quote: “NGC 4631 (also known as the Whale Galaxy or Caldwell 32) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellationCanes Venatici. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname. Because this nearby galaxy is seen edge-on from Earth, professional astronomers observe this galaxy to better understand the gas and stars located outside the plane of the galaxy.”

Usually, the names are based on something from ancient mythology …. But a ‘Hockey Stick’ 😳? Really? Who comes up with these names? What’s going to be next? The ‘USB stick’ 🙄?

What was the experience
Thanks to a run of clear nights, I was able to go for longer integration times on a collection of DSOs. Each night, the planning was roughly the same : start off with some moon frames (see my previous posts), and afterwards program the scopes for 2-3 DSOs a night, gradually building up the integration time.

Standard LRGB processing on this one, although I did separate out the stars right from the start and processed both the stars and the DSOs separately, and combined them in the end. It helped to focus on the detail and colour in the DSOs without over-saturating the stars

Compared to some of the whales floating around, I think this is a decent catch … 😎

How it was done
Scope: TS140 APO (FL 910mm)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Photons: 20220304-08 LRGB 180s 113x 36xx 33x 54x 11:18
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)

What have I learned from this
I’m gradually testing out a new phase in my processing, adapting my workflow to focus separately on the stars and the background. I think this is starting to pay off …

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

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