Messier 108 is also known as NGC 3556 and nicknamed the Surfboard Galaxy. It is a barred spiral galaxy about 46 million light-years away from Earth. It resides in the northern constellation Ursa Major. It is called the Surfboard galaxy because when viewed with a telescope, it is seen nearly edge-on. There is no apparent bulge or pronounced core.
This image consists of 89 180″ exposures taken from my driveway. It was captured with a GSO RC8 telescope f/8 @1625mm. The telescope is paired with a ZWO ASI071MC pro camera cooled to 15f. The setup is atop a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount. Image acquisition session management via Astro Photography Tool (APT 4.60). Image calibrated, registered, integrated and processed manually with PixInsight. Astrobin view here.
Messier 99 is a grand design spiral galaxy, completely unbarred and with two giant spiral arms. One of the spiral arms is normal and the other appears distorted. M99 is slightly asymmetric in shape. The nucleus is shifted from the galaxy’s center. This is likely due to interactions with other galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.
This galaxy seems to be known as both the Virgo Pinwheel Galaxy and St. Catherine’s Wheel. It is located in the northern constellation Coma Berenices, approximately 49,000,000 light-years from the Milky Way. That’s 49 million times 5.8 trillion miles away.
I imaged this over two nights from my driveway in January 2025. I used an RC8 with an ASI071MC camera atop a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount. It consists of 128 180″ exposures calibrated, integrated and processed manually using PixInsight.
A barred spiral galaxy about 50 million light-years away, and located in the constellation Ursa Major. I found this to be bright, small, and colorful. At 1625mm fl with the RC8 it still looks small. Session management with Astrophotography Tool (APT); processing in PixInsight.
Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321 or the Blow Dryer Galaxy) is a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy. It is located in the southern part of the mildly northern Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. It is also one of the largest. The galaxy is approximately 55 million light-years from our galaxy.
It was one of the first spiral galaxies to be discovered. Lord William Parsons of Rosse listed it as one of fourteen spiral nebulae in 1850. NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 are satellite galaxies of M100. NGC 4323 is connected to M100 by a bridge of luminous matter.
Messier 100 is considered a starburst galaxy. The strongest star formation activity is concentrated in its center. This occurs within a ring, which is actually two tightly wound spiral arms. These are attached to a small nuclear bar with a radius of one thousand parsecs. Star formation has been taking place here for at least 500 million years in separate bursts.
As usual on spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, the rest of the disk shows truncated star formation. It also contains neutral hydrogen. M100 is deficient in these elements compared to isolated spiral galaxies of similar Hubble type. This truncation is caused by interactions with the intracluster medium of Virgo.
This image was captured from my driveway in the hills of North Carolina in Bortle 4ish skies. It consists of 192 240″ exposures through an RC8 scope paired with an ASI071MC camera atop an Eq6r Pro mount. Image session management with APT 4.60 and processed manually in PixInsight.
A bright moon and gusty winds didn’t deter the creation of this image. Poor seeing, operator error, and clouds for a couple of hours also didn’t stop it. This is most likely my last image of 2024. The forecast for clear nights after the full moon passes doesn’t look promising.
I present my version of the “Dusty Hand Galaxy.” Also known as NGC 2146, it is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is unique due to the dusty spiral arm that is looping the core from our perspective. Potentially the result of a galaxy merge at its end stage. A result is intense star formation, to such an extent that NGC 2146 is referred to as a starburst galaxy. This is a common state for barred spirals. However, the extra gravitational disruption that NGC 2146 is enduring no doubt exacerbates the situation. This compression of hydrogen-rich nebulas triggers stellar birth.
Image acquisition via Astro Photography Tool (APT), processing with Pixinsight. RC8 telescope, ASI071MC camera, & Eq6r Pro mount.
Messier 74, The Phantom Galaxy, is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms. Therefore, it is used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. It is estimated that there are 100 billion stars in M 74.
The galaxy’s low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. This difficulty gives rise to its nickname, Phantom. M74 has two spiral arms that wind counterclockwise from the galaxy’s center. The spiral arms widen as they get farther from M74’s center, but one of the arms narrows at the end.
This image was taken over two nights, on November 29th and December 3rd, 2024. I used a GSO RC8 telescope at 1625mm. An ASI071MC Pro camera was aboard a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro Mount. Acquisition session management by APT, image processing using Pixinsight.
Messier 63 or M 63 is also known as NGC 5055. It is sometimes called the Sunflower Galaxy. This spiral galaxy is in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It contains approximately 400 billion stars. The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth.
This colorful image is composed of 157 2 minute exposures, or 5.2 hours of exposure. It was taken using a GSO RC8 at 1627mm fl and ASI071MC Pro camera riding an EQ6r Pro mount.
Messier 83 or M 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy and NGC 5236, is a barred spiral galaxy. It is approximately 15 million light-years away. It is located in the constellation borders of Hydra and Centaurus. At a declination of -29:52, it is the most southerly target I can image. There are many nebulae in the arms of this face-on galaxy. This makes it an appealing target for photography.
This image is 49 3 minute exposures from a SW Esprit 120ED & ZWO ASI2600MC Pro riding an EQ6r Pro. Captured using APT and processed in PixInsight.
I centered my sensor on this Elliptical Galaxy in the Virgo constellation so I could frame the “Face”. NGC 4387 is situated close to the celestial equator. It is partly visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.
It is the nose in the commonly viewed Galactic Face of Virgo. NGC 4388 is the mouth while the eyes are the elliptical galaxies, M 86 and M 84, of Markarians chain.
NGC 4402 is the galaxy to the left and NGC 4413 is to the bottom right.
Caldwell 3 is located just north of the Big Dipper. It is one of at least 34 gravitationally bound galaxies in the Ursa Major galaxy group. This barred spiral galaxy, also known as NGC 4236, sits 11.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco and has an apparent magnitude of 9.6. Although faint, Caldwell 3 can be spotted using a small telescope from a dark-sky site. The best views are seen through large telescopes. They show the galaxy as a large, diffuse glow that’s brighter toward the center. It appears highest during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
As far as galaxies go, this is by far the faintest I have tried to image. This image consists of 115 5 minute subframes, for a total of 9.5 hours of exposure. Colorful dust lanes did appear. Imaged the evenings of May 12th, 27th and 28th, 2024.
