M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral (Jason Guenzel)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Leo (Leo) · Contains: M 96 · NGC 3368

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral, Jason Guenzel

Powered byPixInsight

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

Powered byPixInsight

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

M96 lies about 35 million light years away in Leo. The bright inner core is slightly displaced from the outer extended halo. This asymmetric nature hints at past gravitational interactions with neighbors. The inner core is significantly brighter than the outer diffuse arms and a more notable feature is the bright blue ring of starburst activity that surrounds this core.

One interesting aspect of this image is the appearance of a sizable edge-on background galaxy situated behind M96’s faint arm (near the top of the galaxy in this image). This galaxy is 15-20 times more distant by some estimates and shines bright enough to be clearly seen through the foreground stars and dust.

This image was a long time in the making. The RGB data needed a lot of help, but the weather was not allowing me to capture more. So, at some point I called it off and processed what I had.

Enjoy!

ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers
Cloudy Nights

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2039939
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information