Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656) (Torben van Hees)

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

Powered byPixInsight

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Link: http://astro.van-hees.name

Powered byPixInsight

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Link: http://astro.van-hees.name

The whale galaxy (NGC 4631) in the lower left, and its companion, are listed in Arp’s catalog as number 281. NGC 4631 is a barred spiral galaxy about the same size as the Milky Way. It is surrounded by a halo of hot gas that is also suspected to be around our own galaxy. In deeper (space-based) images we can find a connection to the hockey stick galaxy NGC 4656/4657 (visible in the upper right) with which it has interacted previously. The northeastern (lower right in this image) part of the hockey stick has its own NGC number because it was thought to be a separate object.

This was one of the first pictures I took with the RC8. Collimation with the reducer is not perfect, but I think especially the whale galaxy shows some nice detail. The „final“ revision is done with Drizzle Integration, and manual noise reduction with TgVDenoise and MLT and LRGB combination whereas revision B is done with MureDenoise (so no drizzle) and the EZ processing suite on a SuperLum+RGB. I like the“final“ one better. For once, MureDenoise left too many details on the table.

Final
Original
B

B

Description: Reprocessed

Uploaded: ...

Astrophotography Germany
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum
Cloudy Nights

Galaxies

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	4076701
PixInsight job	Y5H2N2D2UAHY0GMOP4K5L6BBYTCPZ1AP
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h42m50s.286
RA (top/left)	12h40m36s.806
RA (top/right)	12h44m44s.378
RA (bottom/right)	12h45m04s.713
RA (bottom/left)	12h40m55s.201

Dec (center)	+32°20′21″.25
Dec (top/left)	+32°03′29″.36
Dec (top/right)	+31°58′00″.51
Dec (bottom/right)	+32°37′04″.68
Dec (bottom/left)	+32°42′36″.24

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Whale and Stick (NGC 4631 and 4656)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

B

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

In these collections

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?

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