Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  M 106  ·  NGC 4217  ·  NGC 4218  ·  NGC 4220  ·  NGC 4226  ·  NGC 4231  ·  NGC 4232  ·  NGC 4248  ·  NGC 4258
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M106 and friends, Vincent Savioz
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M106 and friends

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M106 and friends, Vincent Savioz
Powered byPixInsight

M106 and friends

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Description

Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole.

Source: Wikipedia

It’s been a while since my last image! I’m back after a long period of trouble with my equipment, especially with my computer. Sometimes, it randomly reboots, even in the middle of an imaging session. So, my Eagle2 is temporary replaced by a Windows Surface Pro 4, which is clearly not made to work at cold temperature and humidity. Maybe the worse think about this computer is that there is only ONE USB port. But at least it works. And my focuser also died a few weeks ago…

I didn’t plan to shoot this target until the beginning of the year. As my main target (M42 and surroundings) goes below the horizon at 1 AM, I thought I could capture a galaxy or a star cluster. Three nights were necessary to complete this project and I can’t be happier with the result! The Ha master was very useful to bring out the nebulae in the galaxy.

Color palette used: L+Ha, R+Ha, G, B

Unfortunately, due to the problems mentioned above, I couldn’t finish my M42 mosaic in time. I will maybe post the Ha in a few weeks and wait for the next winter. I’m going to spend the next months cleaning, improving and maybe upgrading my current setup. I’ll keep you posted!

Any advice is welcome!

Clear skies everyone!

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