Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici (Elisabeth Milne)

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

Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici, Elisabeth Milne

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Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

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Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

The 'Whale' (NGC 4631) is an edge-on spiral galaxy located 25 million light years away in Canes Venatici. Sitting above is the small companion (NGC 4627). Below and to the left is another edge-on spiral known as the 'Hockey Stick’ (NGC 4656) which is around 30 million light years distant.

Steve and Barry have recently photographed the Whale and Hockey Stick using their Takahashi FSQ106 rig in Spain. This spurred me on to consider whether capturing the same galaxies using our Esprit 120/Moravian G2-8300 setup at home would give a slightly more detailed view of the galaxies (Pixel resolution 1.33 vs 2.1). I started capturing the data for this image on 27 March and finished on 21 April 2020. I tried 3 frames of Ha on the first night of capture as an experiment to see if it would be worthwhile trying to get a few hours of Ha. There was more visible than I was expecting so I pressed on with it on our next clear night (2 April) as in any event there was really too much moon about to shoot broadband. In the end I managed to get a total of 24 frames of Ha in addition to more broadband frames than we usually manage at home - we have had an unusual number of clear nights here!

Capture details are as follows:

Telescope: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED

Camera: Moravian G2-8300

Filters: Chroma (Ha), Baader (LRGB)

Mount: Mesu 200

Lum: 53 x 600s

Red: 24 x 600s

Green 24 x 600s

Blue: 24 x 600s

Ha: 24 x 1200s

A total of 28 hours and 50 minutes exposure.

Data: Elisabeth Milne & Steve Milne

Processing: Elisabeth Milne

The image has been cropped square as this seemed to give a more pleasing presentation.

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

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3445613
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

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Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

Whale and Hockey Stick in Canes Venatici

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