Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 94  ·  NGC 4736
M94 "Cat's Eye" Galaxy, Mark Germani
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M94 "Cat's Eye" Galaxy

M94 "Cat's Eye" Galaxy, Mark Germani
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M94 "Cat's Eye" Galaxy

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Description

The 506mm focal length of the AT92 makes available a greatly expanded list of objects with slightly smaller apparent size than would be practical to image with my Z61. M94 is such a fascinating object, and one of the larger galaxies I haven't yet imaged. While I have cropped this view, the final image represents 2/3 of the sensor (drizzled 1.5x) and the superior glass of the AT92 reveals much finer detail than my Z61 typically does.

M94 (the "Cat's Eye" or "Crocodile's Eye" galaxy) is unique in that it does not appear to contain very much dark matter; the rotation curve (velocity of stars rotating compared to their distance from the centre of the galaxy) does not flatten out the way we've come to expect. Normally, dark matter accelerates material towards the outside of the galaxy, compensating for the greater distance from central visible mass of that galaxy. M94's rotational curve tapers off, and we're not sure why.

I imaged M94 over five nights in May. It's my first galaxy with the AT92 and I was so happy to have resolved the level of detail in the core, and the colour as well. The full view is absolutely chock-a-block with tiny, distant galaxies - I've never seen that sort of distribution in my Z61 images, and I wonder if it's simply this region of space, or the resolving power of the AT92. I can't wait to move on to a new target and see what I find!

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