Thursday, 27 April 2017

The Whale barred spiral galaxy NGC 4631

The Whale galaxy is about 30 mly away. Its 90,000 ly in diameter and contains about 50 billion stars. Its calf swimming along just above is a dwarf eliptical galaxy called NGC 4627.
Below left is the Crowbar or Hockey Stick galaxy which is actually 2 galaxies NGC 4656 & NGC 4657. Although this is a cropped image I'm still pleased with the amount of detail.
I used 29 x 5 minute exposures at ISO 1600 with my ED 80 scope and light pollution filter even though the sky was good due to a new moon. I added 20 each of Flat,dark and Bias calibration frames. Within an about my scope needed a Meridian flip. I normally don't like doing this as its often a pain realigning losing valuable imaging time.This time however I used Astro Tortilla and plate solved it in 28 seconds. The target was bang in the centre. Just amazing!!!

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