M96

Click on image for larger version.


 M96 is the brightest member of the "Leo I" group of galaxies. This group (specifically M96) is 38 million light years away. If the outermost spiral arms are taken into account, the galaxy spans 100,000 light years in diameter. The image also contains many smaller galaxies (some of which may be near to M96). Most intriguing is the edge-on galaxy near the top of the image. Given its greatly reddened appearence, it would be a good guess that this galaxy is behind M96 and we are peering through the intervening clouds of gas and dust (in M96) to see it. Also check out its neighbor M95.

Equipment

Meade 16in LX200 telescope operating at f/6.3 and f/10 (below)
SBIG ST8E 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 3x3
 Green = 20 minutes binned 3x3
 Blue = 30 minutes binned 3x3
  • 3 frames (30 minutes) were contributed by Bill and Sue Galloway from the previous night. See their image of M95.
  • The information to the left is for the bottom image. This image was aquired with the telescope operating at f/10. The average FWHM for this data is 1.8" .
  • The best aspect of this picture is being able to resolve the very thin dust lane of the background galaxy at the top of the frame.
  • One iteration of L-R deconvolution (sharpening) algorithm using CCDsharp was applied to the luminance image.

  • Digital Developement (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: (top image) Ron Tamler/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
    (bottom image) Don Stotz and Mike Ford/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 1/15/2002