M106 in HaLRGB (Joel Shepherd)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: M 106 · NGC 4248 · NGC 4258

Powered byPixInsight

M106 in HaLRGB

Powered byPixInsight

M106 in HaLRGB

This is M106, an interesting spiral galaxy about 23 million light years from earth. A close neighbor, in galactic terms. M106 has a super-massive black hole at its center, equivalent to 37 million of our suns in mass. It has four major arms: two of which are easily visible in this picture, the other two -- believed to be related to the black hole -- of which are whispy tendrils of superheated gas, just barely visible here as reddish tints. M106 emits massive amounts of microwave radiation, and its blueish hue is due to dense clouds of water vapor. M106's microwave radiation enabled a more precise measurement of its distance, which in turn enabled better calibration of one of astronomy's most useful yardsticks: Cepheid variable stars, which brighten and dim faster or slower depending on their inherent brightness.

I tried a different (for me anyway) method of blending the Ha channel into the RGB, using a linear fit to essentially stretch the Ha to match the already-stretched RGB, and then pixel math to blend the Ha into all three RGB channels: predominantly into red but small amounts into blue and green as well, roughly following the technique described by Chris Schur in 2007, It did seem to bring out extra depth, particularly in the outer areas of the galaxy.

The refractors!
N.I.N.A. Users
Messier Objects
Suburban Astrophotography

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	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3591071
PixInsight job	RV4GIN9J69IXQDQ509FXN1ZNEBWXG5A2
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h18m49s.84
RA (top/left)	12h19m59s.99
RA (top/right)	12h20m21s.29
RA (bottom/right)	12h17m39s.25
RA (bottom/left)	12h17m19s.32

Dec (center)	+47°18′07″.2
Dec (top/left)	+46°59′18″.0
Dec (top/right)	+47°34′07″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	+47°36′53″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+47°02′02″.10

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M106 in HaLRGB

M106 in HaLRGB

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M106 in HaLRGB

M106 in HaLRGB

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