M106
Messier 106 also known as NGC 4258, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106. A Type II supernova was observed in M106 in May 2014. It is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, similar in size and luminosity to the Andromeda Galaxy. The supermassive black hole at the core has a mass of (3.9±0.1)×107 M☉.
M106 has also played an important role in calibrating the cosmic distance ladder. Before, Cepheid variables from other galaxies could not be used to measure distances since they cover ranges of metallicities different from the Milky Way's. M106 contains Cepheid variables similar to both the metallicities of the Milky Way and other galaxies' Cepheids. By measuring the distance of the Cepheids with metallicities similar to our galaxy, astronomers are able to re-calibrate the other Cepheids with different metallicities, a key fundamental step in improving quantification of distances to other galaxies in the universe.
Source: wikipedia
Acquiring and processing details
It's almost exactly one year ago I imaged this galaxy for the first time with my previous TS 102/715 telescope. This year I wanted to do it again to see the difference and if I could improve the quality of the processing. During one night I was able to take 221 subs that were decent enough. It were frames in Ha, L and RGB. Stacking I did once again in Astro Pixel Processor (for convenience) and the post-processing was done in PixInsight.
- Date: April 12th - 2021
- Integration Time: 5.4 hrs
- Telescope: TS Photoline 130/910 x 0.79 at f5.5
- Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-Synscan Go-To
- Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool
- Settings: Gain 139, Offset 21, Cooling -20°C
- Filters: 29x180" Ha, 53x60" and 51x120" L, 33x60" R, 33x60" G, 31x60" B
Crop of image with M106, NGC4248, NGC4231, NGC4232.
Platesolved image by "All Sky Platesolver". Besides M106, also visible: NGC4248, NGC4231, NGC4232, NGC4217, NGC4226.
This is my M106 of 2020, with upside down orientation.
Image of March, 2022
Below my latest capture of M106. This image was taken during the course of two night, 6 and 7 March 2022. In total 145 frames of 300" each. This time I used my TS130/910 Photoline refractor without corrector or reducer at full f7. The fact I'm not using a corrector x1.0 for example results in egg-shaped stars in the edges of the APS-C sensor from the QHY168C camera. So I definitely need to invest in a good field corrector for this setup at f7, which is ideal for the 'galaxy season'.
