NGC 4236 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco and an outlying member of the M81 Group of galaxies, located roughly 12-15 million light-years away (estimates in the literature range from about 11.7 to 21 million light-years).
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NGC 4236 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco and an outlying member of the M81 Group of galaxies, located roughly 12-15 million light-years away (estimates in the literature range from about 11.7 to 21 million light-years). Despite spanning nearly 100,000 light-years, a size comparable to the Milky Way, it is classified as a low surface brightness galaxy, with its stars and star-forming regions spread thinly across an elongated disk rather than concentrated in a bright nucleus. This gives it a large apparent size on the sky (over 20 arcminutes) but a deceptively faint, diffuse look visually. It is a challenging target for astrophotographers, requiring long integration to reveal the mottled star-forming clumps along its bar and the faint traces of its spiral disk.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_4236]
Annotated Image
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Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | New Moon |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Date: | 2025-05-28 |
PixInsight Processing
- Image Integration (x2)
- Drizzle Integration
- Background Neutralization
- Automatic Background Extraction
- Dynamic Background Extraction
- BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution) (x2)
- NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x4)
- Curves Transformation (x2)
- HDR Multiscale Transform
- SCNR
