Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 109  ·  NGC 3992
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Messier 109., astroeyes
Messier 109.
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Messier 109.

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Messier 109., astroeyes
Messier 109.
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Messier 109.

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Description

Just 38' from Phecda in Ursa Major lies this lovely spiral galaxy, M109. This galaxy is estimated to be about 50 MLy from us and is impressively bright, in theory, at magnitude 9.8. It also has an apparent diameter of 8' x 5' and best of all is nearly overhead at the moment. It's surface brightness is quite low, at 13.5 magnitudes per square arcmin. This together with it's close proximity to Phecda can make observing M109 quite challenging, which is unfortunate because it is a beautiful example of an inclined barred spiral.

My image, 60 x 60 sec exposures, shows some detail in the spiral arms and 1 or 2 other faint background galaxies. Keen eyed observers will notice the faint streaking from the bottom left hand corner of the image. I can only assume this is the very faint glow from Phecda which lies at least 2 fields away from M109 at this image scale. I can't process it out so I think it's a real effect. Interesting sensitivity from my H9C.

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Messier 109., astroeyes