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Designations:
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M106, NGC 4258
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Object Type:
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Spiral Galaxy
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Constellation:
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Canes Venatici
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12 hr 19 min
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+47° 18 min
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8.3
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Size:
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18.6 X 7.2 arcminutes
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Distance:
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22 million light years
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Discoverer:
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Pierre Mechain, 1781
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In photographs M106 looks like a scarred survivor of galactic violence,
and it is. Like M94, this oddly shaped spiral has experienced episodes of violent upheaval in its past.
Indeed, we seem to have caught the nucleus in the throes of an enormous explosion, which has strewn several
tens of millions of tons of matter across the plane of the
galaxy.
Its arms are bruised with rich star
forming regions in a mildly chaotic stew of galactic turbulence. Even the
galaxy's
outer arms look as if they have been stretched like taffy until they nearly snapped free of the main body. Radio images
reveal still other arms beyond the limp visual appendages. In 1992 it was announced that, though M106
is seen nearly face on, a disk of gas and dust surrounding the
galaxy's
core is seen nearly edge on.
Then in 1994 a team of radio astronomers discovered a black hole near the
galaxy's nucleus.
There's more to
this Messier object than meets the eye! Still with its belly full of light and two main skeletal arms,
M106 is a satisfying view in small-aperture telescopes. In binoculars it glows faintly 2 degrees south
of 3 Canum Venaticorum. Its saucer-shaped nuclear region immediately challenges viewers with its complex,
mottled texture. The
galaxy
has essentially the same orientation in space as does the Great Andromeda
Galaxy
(M31), but only half the mass. The outer arms of M106 have a distinct S shape and are easy to follow at 23X
in a 4-inch scope. The inner arms also have an S curvature to them, though tighter. So here we have two Ss
superposed on one another - one large, one small.
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Telescope:
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Focal Length:
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1200 mm
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Mount:
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Camera
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Guider:
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Exposures:
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3 hours luminance (12-minute subs) and 48 minutes for each color (R,G,B). Total time 5 hours and 24 minutes
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Location:
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Cicero, IN
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Software:
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CCDSoft for image acquisition, processed with CCDStack and Photoshop CS2
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Image Automation:
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