M106 and Friends (2020)

Out there some 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici is M106, a magnificent spiral galaxy.  It is one of the brightest nearby galaxies and is very large at 135,000 ly across.  This galaxy has a rare second pair of spiral arms composed of hot gases rather than stars resulting from a supermassive black hole in the galaxy center.  Although the black hole is not visible in my image part of the red-yellow gas arms are visible emanating from the core.  Also visible are blue dense portions on the outer parts of the arms that indicate regions of gas, dust, and star formation.

What I like about this view is all the other galaxies which are nearby.  Just to the left of M106 is a small irregular galaxy NGC 4248 is part of the same galaxy group as M106.  If you go a little further left, two tiny galaxies, NGC 4231 and NGC 4232, are visible with a bit of structure.  To the upper left corner is edge on galaxy NGC 4217 located approximately 60 million ly away.  I cropped this image  much more than I usually do in order to get this framing.  I wish I would have centered between the two galaxies rather than on M106 so I did not have to crop it so much.

Overall I am happy with the result as well as posting a second Deep Sky in a month, the first was NGC 2903 from two weeks ago
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Capturing and Processing Video Link

M106 and Friends

Home Monroe, CT
Date: 3-27-20, 4-1-20, 4-8-20, 4-9-20, 4-11-20
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: HoTech Self-Guiding Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: L 193 x 60s, R 78 x 60s, G 84 x 60s, B 85 x 60s
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 6 C
Processing: APT, PixInsight, Photoshop.
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