Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Cetus (Cet)  ·  Contains:  M 77  ·  NGC 1068  ·  PGC 10266  ·  PGC 1154903
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M77 #2, Molly Wakeling
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M77 #2

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M77 #2, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

M77 #2

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Description

So this dataset is actually quite old (for me) -- fall/winter 2020 -- but my first attempts at processing it did not go well.
But after learning about the GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch in PixInsight, the game has changed! I was having a lot of trouble stretching it with the high background, but with GHS, I was able to get quite a nice stretch and still preserve a little of the dim outer arms. I'm quite pleased with how it came out!

M77 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus, and lies 47 million lightyears away. The bar is not obvious in visible light, but is apparent in infrared. It has an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is a region at the center of a galaxy that is much brighter than it should be over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. They're thought to be the accretion of material around a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center emitting a ton of radiation. It's the brightest, as well as one of the closest, galaxies with an AGN, so it is frequently studied.

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M77 #2, Molly Wakeling