Spiral Galaxy Messier 106 & Stellar Companions in Canes Venatici

Spiral Galaxy Messier 106 & Stellar Companions in Canes Venatici

Astrophotographer Francesco Radici: "Taking advantage of a clear night, at least in the first part of the night, last Friday I went out with my equipment towards the usual site from which I photograph lately, in Pietralunga (PG), Bortle 4 (SQM 21.45 from LPM) and I was able to take advantage of the excellent seeing and darkness to shoot without any filter on this beautiful field, for which I had already carried out several hours of shooting from home, to enhance the hydrogen emissions of the main galaxy, M106. I had already shot the same target from home in previous years, but I was curious to do it from a good sky, which would allow me not to use any filter to best bring out the colors of the stars and collect signals coming from the countless galaxies in the background distant who knows how many millions (billions?) of light years. Unfortunately the shooting was interrupted due to the increasingly insistent fog, until the sky was completely covered. Surprisingly, the few shots taken, just 3 hours and 20 minutes, were enough to obtain a good result. There's no doubt about it, Newton's 10 inches on galaxies are priceless. I hope you like it too."

Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

Technical details:

40*300s T-20 G100 No Filter (3h20m) Bortle 4 Sky
90*600 T-20° G100 Optolong L-Ultimate (15h) Bortle 6 Sky
Equipment:
Skywatcher Newton 250/1200
Skywatcher 1x Coma Corrector
Omegon veTEC571C Color
Optolong L-Ultimate 2' 3nm Ha/OIII Filter
Touptek OAG X + ASI290MM Mini Guide Camera
Ioptron CEM70

Image Credit: Francesco Radici

Capture Location: Pietralunga, Italy
Release Date: Feb. 23, 2025

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