NGC 4631 - Lonely whale cruising through the void (LRGBH) (Marcel Noordman)

NGC 4631 - Lonely whale cruising through the void (LRGBH)

Description (from wikipedia)

NGC 4631 (also known as the Whale Galaxy or Caldwell 32) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici about 30 million light years away from Earth. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname.[3] Because this nearby galaxy is seen edge-on from Earth, professional astronomers observe this galaxy to better understand the gas and stars located outside the plane of the galaxy.

NGC 4631 contains a central starburst, which is a region of intense star formation. The strong star formation is evident in the emission from ionized hydrogen [4] and interstellar dust heated by the stars formed in the starburst.[5] The most massive stars that form in star formation regions only burn hydrogen gas through fusion for a short period of time, after which they explode as supernovae. So many supernovae have exploded in the center of NGC 4631 that they are blowing gas out of the plane of the galaxy. This superwind can be seen in X-rays [6] and in spectral line emission.[4] The gas from this superwind has produced a giant, diffuse corona of hot, X-ray emitting gas around the whole galaxy.[7]

Personal Note

Bit frustrating as the picture suggests a lot of fine detail throughout the length of the galaxy, but due to limitations of my set-up I cannot really resolve them. Fuzzy details remain fuzzy upon zoom-in, even after drizzle, deconvolution and other HDR and sharpening efforts. Anyway, happy with the result. Especially in the starless image, it really looks like a lonely whale ;-) I double checked the Ha image, but no signs of the superwinds leaving the galaxy core perpendicular to the galaxy plane. Probably needs more exposure time or other wavelengths (future project?).

Processing

Chrominance: WBPP, autocrop, GradientRemoval, RGB combination, Background Neutralisation, Image Solving, SpectroPhotometric ColorCalibration, Deconvolution, Noise reduction, Starextraction, GHS, Curves
Luminance: WBPP with 2xdrizzle, GradientRemoval, Deconvolution, denoise, GHS, Curves, denoise, HDRM MST, LocalHistogramNormalization, UnsharpMask (blending these together)
H data: create HRR, color calibration, stretch, deduct red continuum, clip dark, put back in.

	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	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9566966
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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