M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing (David Payne)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 94 · NGC 4736 · PGC 2172172 · PGC 2172424 · PGC 2172498 · PGC 2174067 · PGC 2174346 · PGC 2174567 · PGC 2174701 · PGC 2175000 · PGC 2175586 · PGC 2176792 · PGC 2177973 · PGC 2178511 · PGC 2179969 · PGC 2180031 · PGC 2180215

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M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing

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M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing

M94 in HaLRGB - How a Strain Wave Mount WorksM94 - HaLRGB (Canes Venatici), March 2023
Planewave CDK12.5" telecope and A-P 1100GTO AE mount
ASI6200MM, Antlia Pro BB & 3nm Ha Filters
Lum (32 x 200s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain 100)
RGB (3 x 20 x 200s exposures, Bin 2x2 Gain 100)
Ha (12 x 600s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain 200)
Total Integration Time = 7.1 hours

It is great to be back imaging, now that a decent weather window opened up, and what better target than M94. There is a lot more to M94 than a typical galaxy and is one of my favourites...
The structure is deemed a "barred spiral", except instead of a bar, the centre is oval shaped. There are two distinct parts to the galaxy - a structured spiral inner ring (resembling a centrifugal pump), and an outer starry cloud with less structure. Interestingly there is a gap between (in most places), as if the inner portion of the galaxy has swept up / pulled in the stars in the gap. Lots to read about it and no-one seems to be sure how this galaxy works. It does look like an illustration of strain-wave mount gearing, but alas, this image did not employ a strain wave mount.
In the inner portion of the galaxy there obviously a lot of new blue-star formation going on, with a high hydrogen (red) circle around the galactic core (a starburst ring). Also makes a pretty picture.
Finally there are tons of background galaxies in this image, many not catalogues by the plate solver.
M94 is 16 to 17 E6light years away, and is 30,000 ly across.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7445068
PixInsight job	7DIXHF9V17KYXUI3I16LLJIVZFP375DR
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h50m57s.786
RA (top/left)	12h48m55s.730
RA (top/right)	12h52m57s.344
RA (bottom/right)	12h53m00s.623
RA (bottom/left)	12h48m57s.310

Dec (center)	+41°07′10″.84
Dec (top/left)	+40°51′14″.23
Dec (top/right)	+40°50′37″.63
Dec (bottom/right)	+41°22′55″.92
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°23′34″.52

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M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing

M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing

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M94 - The Galactic Strain Wave Gearing

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