ancarraigobservatory.co.uk
Imaging the night sky above Co. Down, Northern Ireland
Discovered by William Herschel in 1787.
NGC 4631 is a huge edge-on spiral galaxy, which is apparently distorted by its small elliptical companion, NGC 4627. This pair has been included in Arp's Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 281. Rich field telescopes show it in one field with its large, heavily distorted companion, NGC 4656; this galaxy seems to have interacted massively with NGC 4631: there's a bridge of hydrogen gas connecting both galaxies.
The name Herring Galaxy (or Nebula) is given in the interstellarum Deep Sky magazine (No. 3, May-July 1995), the name "Whale Galaxy" occurs in the Thompson & Bryan Supernova Search Charts series.
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Object Details
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NGC 4631 & 4656
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Imaging Details
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Designation:
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Date: |
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NGC
4631 & 4656
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March 2010 | |
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Other Designation:
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Site: | |
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Caldwell 32, Arp 281
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An Carraig Observatory | |
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Common Name:
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Equpment: | |
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Whale & Hockey Stick
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TMB 80 @ F6 |
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Constellation:
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Canes Venatici
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Size:
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Image Exposures: | |
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Luminance: |
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Distance:
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Magnitude:
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9 & 10
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Co-ordinates J2000:
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RA 12 : 42 : 08
Dec +32 : 32 : 30 |