Friday, June 19, 2020

whales and hockey (Stillwater Lake)

Back on 26 Apr, I queued up job 82 with the Mini-Robotic Observatory, considering it's wide field of view, and getting two interesting objects at the same time. Whales breaching and hockey sticks flying. I centred on the Tycho-2 star 25310 0762 1.

Early today I noticed it still in the hopper. I relaxed the minimum altitude setting from 65 degrees. That helped its eligibility for the evening run. 

The Whale and Hockey Stick galaxies in luminance

Luminance only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; left is east.

The upper galaxy (with small companion) is NGC 4631. It's on the Finest NGC list, the Herschel 400, and the Caldwell. 

NGC 4627 is the "blast of water" from the whale.

The bent galaxy is NGC 4656 aka the Hockey Stick or the Crowbar. Also a Finest NGC and Herschel 400.

That was fun.

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