Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 106  ·  NGC 4220  ·  NGC 4226  ·  NGC 4231  ·  NGC 4232  ·  NGC 4248  ·  NGC 4258
A Closer Look At Messier 106, 



    
        

            Steven Hanaway
A Closer Look At Messier 106
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A Closer Look At Messier 106

A Closer Look At Messier 106, 



    
        

            Steven Hanaway
A Closer Look At Messier 106
Powered byPixInsight

A Closer Look At Messier 106

Acquisition details

Dates:
May 18, 2018
Frames:
413×120(13h 46′)
Integration:
13h 46′
Avg. Moon age:
3.38 days
Avg. Moon phase:
12.37%

Basic astrometry details

Astrometry.net job: 2073447

RA center: 12h18m59s.9

DEC center: +47°1818

Pixel scale: 1.213 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 91.660 degrees

Field radius: 0.810 degrees

Resolution: 1824x1226

File size: 1.2 MB

Locations: The Sidewinder Observatory, San Marcos, Texas, United States

Data source: Unknown

Description

Good afternoon everyone! Today's image is a galaxy known and catalogued as Messier 106. This intermediate spiral galaxy can be found in the constellation Canes Venatici about 22-25 million light years away from Earth. This galaxy is classified as a seyfert type 2 galaxy, meaning that the galaxy has an active galactic nucleus and super-massive black hole with the same strong and high absorption emission lines spectroscopically, but that we can see the galaxy unlike other types of quasars. Cool fact about this galaxy is that it has a water vapor mega-maser. A maser is like a laser, just in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This mega-maser is important, because it has given astronomers a independent method of measuring distances to galaxies, and because of that, this object is an important calibration target for measuring the distances of other galaxies. I hope you like today's image and information, be sure to check back regularly for new uploads, Clear Skies!

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A Closer Look At Messier 106, 



    
        

            Steven Hanaway