​M108, the Surfboard galaxy, is located 46 million light years from Earth, in the constellation Ursa Major. It is seen edge on and has no apparent bulge. It was discovered in 1781 by Pierre mechain, who, impressively, had siscovered M97 three days earlier. Charles Messier records having seen the galaxy in 1781 but didn't record an accurate position or add it to his list. It was finally added to Messier's list in 1953 by astronomer Owen Gingrich.

"There is little evidence of a well-defined spiral pattern in the galaxy, but M108 is classified as a barred spiral galaxy with loosely wound spiral arms. Observations show young star clusters exposed against a mottled and detail-rich background. M108 also contains supershells, which are shells of gas driven by bursts of star formation and resulting supernova explosions. The supershells could also be driven by stellar jets or an infall of gas from outside the galaxy.

At the center of M108 is a supermassive black hole estimated to be 24 million times as massive as the Sun. The Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered multiple X-ray sources in M108, with the brightest X-ray source suspected to be an intermediately sized black hole that is actively accreting material.

M108 is one of the largest and brightest members of the Ursa Major cluster, which is part of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. It has a magnitude of 10 and is located just under the bowl of the Big Dipper. M108 can be seen with small telescopes as an elliptical streak of light with a brighter core, while telescopes 8 inches or larger will reveal more detail. The best time to observe M108 is in April, but it can be seen throughout the year for those in the Northern Hemisphere." [1]

I have been trying to sort out my stored sessions and came across three sessions over two years where I had briefly imaged M108, using three different cameras and twice using the focal length reducer on the RC8. The image shown combines data from these sessions and the image size reflects the FOV of the Atik one 6.0 and RC-8 at 1600 mm. I don't recall the session but the framing suggests that I was set up to image something else.

[1] https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-108/