NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan (Tom Gray)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: NGC 4627 · NGC 4631 · NGC 4656 · NGC 4657 · Whale Galaxy

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

Lying 25 mLY from us, this edge on spiral is heavily distorted by interactions with the elliptical NGC 4627. In colour images this shows up with dramatic blue star clouds and bright emission nebulae.

This is an unguided monochrome image taken with my DSI3 pro ccd camera, at 545mm, comprising just over 2 hours using 30s exposures. Really pleased with the level of detail achieved. I will of course be adding some colour data to this in due course.

Given the nickname the whale and calf (pup) this does give the sense of a giant leviathan journeying across the cosmic seas. I’m not so taken with the hockey stick. NGC 4656/7 is another barred spiral heavily distorted by 4631

Final
Original
B
C
D
E

B

Title: Processed in Siril

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Taking the … a single colour frame

Description: My one forecast clear night this week and all going swimmingly - alignment, tracking - check, autoguider - check, focus- check. exposure - check… start… one frame in… uncheck - cloud for the rest of the night!

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: Whale and calf (pup) - processed in Siril

Description: NGC_4631_25x120s_50m_RGB4x4_264x30s_132m_L_Siril

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: No easy task aligning different frames/image scales

Description: A colour version processed in Startools - I had great difficulty aligning the stacks from different cameras and image scales. Mono DSI pro (6.45 micron pixel) and Altair 183C OSC (2.45 micron pixel).

Uploaded: ...

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
INDI Users
UK Astro-Imaging
Low-Cost Astrophotography

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7610038
PixInsight job	1V3PQEUSEOAJYQ0HSC87YUHNK2NL1QQC
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h42m56s.60
RA (top/left)	12h40m22s.88
RA (top/right)	12h44m10s.92
RA (bottom/right)	12h45m30s.55
RA (bottom/left)	12h41m41s.19

Dec (center)	+32°24′32″.7
Dec (top/left)	+32°19′46″.1
Dec (top/right)	+31°55′49″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+32°29′07″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+32°53′13″.0

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

C

D

E

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

NGC 4631 - a cosmic leviathan

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

C

D

E

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

Delete this revision?

Delete this revision?

Delete this revision?

Delete this revision?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information