M106

Image Description and Details : 

M106 galaxy dominates on this image. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 is about 80,000 light-years across and 23.5 million light-years away, the largest member of the Canes II galaxy group. For a far far away galaxy, the distance to M106 is well-known in part because it can be directly measured by tracking this galaxy's remarkable maser, or microwave laser emission. Very rare but naturally occurring, the maser emission is produced by water molecules in molecular clouds orbiting its active galactic nucleus.

The following galaxies can also be seen in the image - NGC4248 (bright at the left-bottom of the center), UGC7356 (above M106) and a pair of galaxies NGC4231 & NGC4232 (in the lower left corner of the full-size image). Beneath NGC4248 is also a cluster of distant little fuzzy galaxies.

What interesting is that this image reveals one of the two faint hydrogen jets inside M106 (2 o'clock from galaxy center).

Own remote observatory, 50 km from Kiev, Bortle 4 zone. Imaged during March - May 2021. AZ-EQ6 mount, ONTC8 newton, QHY22. Guide - OAG with Lodestar camera.
Astrodon 5nm Ha: 68 x 900s;
Astrodon L: 125 x 300s;
Astrodon R: 40 x 300s;
Astrodon G: 40 x 300s;
Astrodon B: 70 x 300s;
Total exposure - 40 hr.
Captured in SGP, processed in Pixinsight.

Copyright: Sergiy Vakulenko