NGC4631 | NGC4656 Whale and Hockey Stick Galaxies (Kyle Desrosier)

NGC4631 | NGC4656 Whale and Hockey Stick Galaxies

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUypk7mDwBm/

My job took over my life during the pandemic. I was left with so little energy every day that imaging was never appealing to me. I left the project I was on and had my company relocate me to Colorado. Things at worked have thankfully calmed, so I've had time to reinvest myself into the hobby. I have darker skies and better seeing, and even began construction on a permanent observatory.

I captured the data for this image of the Whale and Hockey Stick galaxies back before I took a break from the hobby in February 2020. I finally got around to processing the data, and am fairly pleased with how it turned out. I had a lot of guiding problems with my mount during this time (>2" RMS on average), so the FWHM wasn't as low as I wanted. I also had planned on capturing Ha to go along with the LRGB, but never got around to it.

Processing Details

Pre-processing (for each channel)
- Blink
- ImageCalibration
- CosmeticCorrection
- SubframeSelector
- StarAlignment
- ImageIntegration
- DrizzleIntegration
- DynamicCrop
- BackgroundModelization

Luminance
- Deconvolution: DynamicPSF, star mask for local support, masked w/ range mask
- MultiscaleLinearTransform: lightness NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- HistogramTransformation: stretched non-linear

RGB
- LinearFit
- ChannelCombination
- BackgroundNeutralization
- ColorCalibration
- SCNR: Red & Green
- MultiscaleLinearTransform: RGB/K NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- MultiscaleMedianTransform: chrominance NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- HistogramTransformation: stretched non-linear

LRGB
- LRGBCombination
- TGVDenoise: lightness for local support, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- HDRMultiscaleTransform
- LocalHistrogramEqualization: masked w/ galaxy mask
- UnsharpMask: masked w/ galaxy mask
- MultiscaleMedianTransform: lightness NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- MultiscaleMedianTransform: chrominance NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- CurvesTransformation: saturation increase of galaxy, masked w/ screened galaxy mask
- ColorSaturation: masked w/ screened galaxy mask
- MultiscaleMedianTransform: chrominance NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask
- MorphologicalTransformation: reduced star sizes, masked w/ star mask
- HistrogramTransformation: darkened background space
- MultiscaleMedianTransform: lightness NR, masked w/ inverted low contrast mask

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4998506
PixInsight job	QVV7W8K8YOLM960VZVT0CMNV3XKZ4NP0
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h42m59s.43
RA (top/left)	12h47m36s.86
RA (top/right)	12h39m49s.92
RA (bottom/right)	12h38m24s.50
RA (bottom/left)	12h46m05s.35

Dec (center)	+32°22′02″.8
Dec (top/left)	+32°46′26″.2
Dec (top/right)	+33°11′19″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	+31°57′01″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	+31°32′28″.8

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