M106

Click on image for larger version.

M106 is an unexpected jewel for spiral galaxies. The brightest portions of the galaxy (center) show tremendous activity of star formation between the darker clouds of gas. One such cloud seems to rise out of the disk like a wall and prevents us from seeing directly into the nucleus. This galaxy is estimated to be around 21 million light years away. Back in February 2000 this galaxy was featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day. The image shown here is more recent and shows brighter colors and fainter details.

Equipment

16in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

Luminance = 75 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2
  • The average FWHM of stellar profiles in this image is 1.8 arcseconds.
  • Both deconvolution and DDP were used to create this image.

    • Minimum credit line: Bernie and Jay Slotnick/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 2/27/2003