Image of the Month
NGC-4490
NGC-4490 Galaxy in Canes Venatici
NGC-4490, a distorted spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Canes Venatici. This galaxy and its smaller companion, NGC-4485, to the west, are in tidal interaction with each other. These galaxies have already reached their closest approach point, and are now pulling away from each other. A tidal stream of stars has been pulled off of NGC-4490 and stretches towards NGC-4485, which lies only 24,000 light years away (less than the distance from Earth to the center of our own Milky Way galaxy). This tidal interaction has triggered immense bursts of star formation within both galaxies. This pair lies 24 million light years from Earth.
This image, acquired on April 20, 2020, is a 48 minute integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the ZWO ASI071 MC color CMOS camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.