NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy in SHO Narrowband
Wednesday, April 15th, 2026 at 2:22:59 PM · 2026/Astrophotography
A deep-sky astrophotography image capturing NGC 4631 (the Whale Galaxy) and its companion NGC 4656 (the Hockey Stick Galaxy) against a star-studded background. The main galaxy appears as an elongated, edge-on spiral with bright blue-white star-forming regions along its length and a warped, distorted structure caused by gravitational interactions. Captured using narrowband filters (SII, Ha, OIII) combined with broadband RGB and luminance data over 6.4 hours of exposure time. The image showcases the galaxy's active star formation and complex morphology at approximately 25 million light-years distance in the constellation Canes Venatici.
Chronologically Adjacent
