NGC4485/90

Enhanced Hydrogen Comparison

Interacting Galaxies in Canes Venatici

Uploaded 6/6/08

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This spectacular interacting pair of galaxies is the center of a greater number of fainter background objects. The primary object seen here is 10.2 magnitude NGC4490, classed as SBS7P, and quite peculiar. The companion to the interaction is 12.3 magnitude NGC4485 above, and is an Irregular Magellanic type. The interaction is noteworthy because of the string of pink HII regions on the north side of 4490, and the trail leading up to the companion. The completely blue color of these galaxies is a bit unusual indicating a burst of star formation on a gigantic scale.

The small faint galaxies also in the image are anonymous types, with little data on them, however they are mostly 17th magnitude and fainter.

The image on the left is a standard LRGB image with a combined six hour integration time. An additional 2 hours of hydrogen alpha data was combined to this image for the right image.

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian Mount: Astrophysics 1200 QMD CCD Camera: SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling Guider: SBIG ST4 w/Lumicon Newt Easy Guider Exposure: Ha+LRGB = 120+240:40:40:40 (RGB Binned 2x2) AstroDon RGB Combine Ratio: 1: 1.05: 1.11 Location: Payson, Arizona, Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing FWHM = 10 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 9/10 Outside Temperature: 45 F CCD Temperature: -30 C Image Processing Tools: Maxim DL: Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking Gralaks Sigma: Stacking PixInsight: Curves, Deconvolution, noise reduction Photoshop CS2: Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS