Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4627  ·  NGC 4631  ·  NGC 4656  ·  NGC 4657
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Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson
Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO
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Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson
Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO
Powered byPixInsight

Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO

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Description

NGC 4631, the Whale Galaxy, is the edge-on barred spiral galaxy at bottom left. It is approximately 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Beneath NGC 4631 is its close companion the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 4627, also known as the Pup. NGC 4631 has a core of older, yellow stars surrounded by young blue stars. It has a dark equatorial dust lane and many emission nebulae glowing with the magenta of ionished Hydrogen. The central region of the galaxy is a starburst region where new stars are rapidly forming.

At top right is the highly distorted pair of interacting galaxies NGC 4656 and NGC 4657, also known as the Hockey Stick Galaxies.

These galaxies are all members of the NGC 4631 group.

Captured at SRO.

Acquisition credit: Scott Johnson, Augusto Hernandez, John Kasianowicz, Daniele Malleo, Jose Mtanous and Rick Stevenson

Processing credit & copyright: Rick Stevenson

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    Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson
    Original
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    Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson
    B
    Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson
    C

B

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C

Description: Inverted image with star streams

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Whale and Hockey Stick from SRO, Rick Stevenson