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M104/NGC4549 | Sombrero Galaxy | LRGB

The incredible glare emitted by the Sombrero Galaxy, catalogued as M104 or NGC4549, lights space for many thousands of light years beyond its central core. This galaxy lies in the constellation of Virgo, being some 31 million light years distant from Earth. This galaxy is approximately one quarter to one third the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy [M104: approximately 50,000 light years diameter].

 

This galaxy also has a striking dust lane that heavily contrasts against the bright glow. Rolf Olsen has previously defined in his excellent annotated image summary of M104 that the Sombrero Galaxy has a large number of orbiting globular clusters, estimated to be in the number of 1,200 to 2,000. These globular clusters are a spherical collection of a massive number of stars held tightly in formation by gravity.

 

Hope you enjoy this beautiful galaxy - thank you for looking.

 

Full Resolution link:

live.staticflickr.com/65535/47820548731_ff518bca22_o.jpg

 

Information about the image:

 

Center (RA, Dec): (189.850, -11.636)

Center (RA, hms): 12h 39m 23.927s

Center (Dec, dms): -11° 38' 08.433"

Size: 38.6 x 26.7 arcmin

Radius:0.391 deg

Pixel scale: 0.732 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: Up is 1.17 degrees E of N

 

Instrument: Planewave CDK 12.5 | Focal Ratio: F8

Camera: STXL-11000 + AOX | Mount: AP900GTO

Camera Sensitivity: Lum: BIN 1x1, RGB: BIN 2x2

Exposure Details: Total: 25 hours | Lum: 76 x 900 sec [19.0hr],RGB 450sec x 16 each [6.0hrs]

Viewing Location: Central Victoria, Australia.

Observatory: ScopeDome 3m

Date: April 2019

Software Enhancements: CCDStack2, CCDBand-Aid, PS, Pixinsight

Author: Steven Mohr

 

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Uploaded on May 10, 2019