Astrophotography from the Ajo, AZ area
February 8, 2018
I am very happy with this one. This is almost 3 hours of exposure time and one
can
even see nebulas within the galaxy. This is M106 in Canes Venatici. I have
tried to image this galaxy before but never had much success.
I copied this information from Wikipedia:
Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an
intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. M106 is at a
distance of about
22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus
classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central
supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations
of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas
orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. A Type II supernova
was observed in this galaxy in May 2014.
Here is M106 and neighboring galaxies.
NGC 1532, I did this earlier this winter but last night added another 40 minutes
of exposure. It is a very small galaxy in our view from Earth, but in reality it
is 210,000 light years in diameter (larger than the galaxy we reside in) and
nearly 60 million light years distant.