Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Messier 106

Messier 106 & NGC 4248

A spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici discovered in 1781 by Pierre Mechain. Distance from Earth at about 22-25 Million Light years. X-Ray emissions and other observations indicate the galaxy is falling in to a large supermassive black hole located at its center. Gravitationally bound and part of its local group, NGC 4248 is located just below. An edge-on spiral galaxy on a collision course with M106. Other galaxies are also visible in the distant background.

23 x 180 Seconds [on 4/6/2010] ISO 1600, 10 Dark (+40F) , 8 Neutral Flat, 3 Neutral Temp Bias, Celestron C8 Ultima on CGEM, CG5 ASGT, AstroTech AT66 AutoGuiding, Orion SSAG, Losmandy LOS-VIX, VSBS, RDF65

-mb