Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  M 104  ·  NGC 4594  ·  Sombrero galaxy
M 104, Alpha Zhang
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M 104

M 104, Alpha Zhang
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M 104

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Description

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is a lenticular galaxy[4] in the constellation Virgo found 9.55 Mpc (31,100,000 ly)[2] from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 15kpc (50,000 light-years),[5] 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 hat. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but the Spitzer Space Telescope found that the dust ring around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy.[6] The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0,[5] making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it is considered by some authors to be the galaxy with the highest absolute magnitude within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way.[3] Its large bulge, its central supermassive black hole, and its dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

Image Telescope : AG Optical 10" iDK

Image Camera : FLI ML-8050

Mount : Sky-Watcher EQ8

Frames : L(96*600sec)/R(21*600sec)/G(26*600sec)/B(28*600sec)

Location : Lijiang , Yunnan , China

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