 |
M106 - Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici
|
Copyright 2007 Hap Griffin
M106 is a Seyfert Galaxy indicating that it has a very active core which is emitting copious energy in the radio spectrum. A massive black hole exists in its center and the ring of hot matter spiraling into it creates two jets of material, one below the plane of the galaxy and another above the plane...neither of which is visible in this photograph.
The more distant galaxy at lower middle center is 12th magnitude edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4248.
M106 lies at a distance of 24 million light-years.
Date/Location:
March 17, 2007 Griffin/Hunter
Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Canon 350XT Digital SLR (modified) through 10" Meade
RCX-400
Focal Ratio: F/8
Guiding: Auto via SBIG ST-237 through Orion ED80
Conditions: Visually clear
Weather: 25 F
Exposure: 65 minutes total (13 x 5 minutes)
Filters: Baader UV/IR Block
Processing: Focused and captured with DSLRFocus.
RAW to TIFF conversion, auto-dark and flat frame calibration, Digital
Development, Richardson-Lucy deconvolution, resizing and JPEG conversion in
ImagesPlus. Color correction in Photoshop CS2. Noise reduction in
Neat Image.