Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4485  ·  NGC 4490
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 4490, Tom Harrison
NGC 4490
Powered byPixInsight

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

NGC4490 and its companion galaxy NGC4485 are between 40-50 Million Light-Years distant toward the Constellation Canes Venatici. NGC4490 is also known as the Cocoon Galaxy. Stars trail between the two galaxies in a 24,000 Light-Year gap as they now pull away from each other during their orbital dance toward merger. The gravitational interaction has created a large number of star-forming regions with pink HII areas and blue stars regions lighting the entire length of both. The pair is being studied by astronomers through computer models to determine the mechanics of interacting galaxy pairs. A supernova was noted in NGC4490 in 2008, and previously in 1982. NGC4490 shows characteristics of a barred spiral galaxy, while NGC4485 is classified as an irregular galaxy.

Object: NGC4490 and NGC4485

Distance: 40-50 Million Light-Years

Magnitude: 9.8

Date: May 2011

Place: Fort Davis, TX

Exposure Details: LRGB:550:150:180:240 unbinned

Processing: MaxIm DL, CCDInspector, CCDStack, Photoshop CS3

Optics: 12.5" RCOS Truss

Focal Length: 2808 @ f9

Mount: Paramount ME Robotic

Camera: SBIG STL6303E

Focuser: RCOS

Guiding: Off-Axis using SBIG Guide Camera

Filters: Tru-Balance Gen II 2" L

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 4490, Tom Harrison