The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 orNGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 50,000 light-years, 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but Spitzer found that the halo around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +9.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it's considered by some authors to be the brightest galaxy within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers. The Sombrero Galaxy was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain.

One of this galaxy's most striking feature is the dust lane that crosses in front of the bulge of the galaxy. This dust lane is actually a symmetrical ring that encloses the bulge of the galaxy. Most of the cold atomic hydrogen gas and the dust lie within this ring. The Sombrero Galaxy has a relatively large number of globular clusters with estimates of the population in the range of 1,200 to 2,000. [Source: Wikipedia]

The image was captured with the TMB80SS (mounted on the "classic" Meade 12"LX200). The optical train included the Atik 383L+m, EFW2 and Orion Field Flattener at F6.3 (i.e. native 504mm FL). Guiding was done with the Solomark F50 guidescope and Lodestar camera combo. Astronomik's Lum and R, G and B broad band filters were used. All subs were taken at 1x1 bin, and -10C, and at 3 minutes each.

Image information -- 2016

L : 63 subs (3.15 hr) on Mar 27th, 28th, and Apr 1st.

R : 16 subs ( 0.80 hr) on Mar 27th.

G : 16 subs ( 0.80 hr) on Mar 27th.

B : 19 subs ( 0.95 hr) on Mar 27th.

Processing was with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th, 2013. Lum filter was used to develop the Luminance image. R, G and B were collected for the color mix. North is up, and this is a slight crop. This target really deserves to be imaged with the 12"LX200.