M61

Click on image for larger version.


 M61 is one of the major members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. It is comparable in size to our own galaxy. Though a barred spiral, deep images such as this make the bar in the nucleus of the galaxy less obvious. This galaxy has an extraordinary number of star forming regions (HII, pink areas). An image with greater resolution would certainly show even more evidence of active star formation. At distance of 60 million light years away M61 seems to float in the foreground of several distant galaxies.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
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 = 90 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2
  • Two iterations of L-R deconvolution (sharpening) algorithm using CCDsharp were applied to the luminance image.

  • Digital Development (DDP) via Maxim/DL was also used in order to display the the very dim and very bright details of the image simultaneously.

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    Minimum credit line: Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 04/01/2003