The Hockey Stick Galaxy – NGC4656 & The Whale Galaxy – NGC4631

NGC 4656/NGC4657 also known informally as the “Hockey Stick Galaxy” or the “Crowbar Galaxy” is a distorted edge-on spiral galaxy.

Its distinctive hockey stick shape is due to a recent gravitational interaction with the Whale galaxy NGC 4631.

NGC 4656/NGC4657 is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici at 15.8 million light years from Earth. I barely picked up the much fainter section of the Hockey stick just below the bottom of the stick.

This 11th magnitude galaxy is a member of the NGC 4631 Group.

Interesting note: A Luminous Blue Variable star in “super-outburst” was discovered in NGC 4656/57 on March 21, 2005.

NGC 4631 or Caldwell 32 (bottom left) is known as the Whale Galaxy with NGC 4627 its baby whale(pup) just below it.

The Whale Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici.

This galaxy’s slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname.

From Earth we see it edge-on to our line of sight, and shines at 9.8 magnitude, it is located 25 million light years away.

I captured this image from my observatories in Ohio on 05-15-2021 and both galaxies barely fit in my FOV.

I used my Explore Scientific 102mm Triplet APO (FCD 100) refractor telescope & QHY183C Cooled Cmos Camera, Bisque ME robotic Mount, 85 minutes total integration,

I had to throw away 7 x(300sec) subs due to high clouds rolling in and out, but managed to keep 85 minutes of the original 120 min. data run. Stacking & Processing in DSS, Pixinsight & Adobe CC 2021.