Capturing the Beauty of the Edge-On Surfboard Galaxy

M 108 - Surfboard Galaxy

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.

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