NGC 4725 galaxy
This galaxy in Coma Berenices was positioned well in the past few weeks for imaging from my yard. NGC 4725 is about 40 million light years away, and is considered unusual for its single spiral arm, which shows well in dark sky images but is a bit too faint to fully emerge from the NY skyglow. A supermassive black hole is believed to be at the center of the yellowish core making this a "Seyfert" galaxy. My small telescope did pick up the brighter detail in the first ring of the spiral which forms an interesting eye-shaped image. The small galaxy toward the right-hand (west) edge of the image is NGC 4712, and various websites place this galaxy's distance at over 200 million light years!
Tech Stuff: 3.5" Questar scope guided by SBIG ST-i Guider using PHD 2. Image captured in Nebulosity 4.0 with Starlight Xpress Trius SX-9C cooled cam behind a Questar .5X focal reducer, at approximately f/9. 48X5 minute exposures from 4 nights stacked and processed in PixInsight; lightly finished with GIMP. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.
NGC 4725 galaxy
This galaxy in Coma Berenices was positioned well in the past few weeks for imaging from my yard. NGC 4725 is about 40 million light years away, and is considered unusual for its single spiral arm, which shows well in dark sky images but is a bit too faint to fully emerge from the NY skyglow. A supermassive black hole is believed to be at the center of the yellowish core making this a "Seyfert" galaxy. My small telescope did pick up the brighter detail in the first ring of the spiral which forms an interesting eye-shaped image. The small galaxy toward the right-hand (west) edge of the image is NGC 4712, and various websites place this galaxy's distance at over 200 million light years!
Tech Stuff: 3.5" Questar scope guided by SBIG ST-i Guider using PHD 2. Image captured in Nebulosity 4.0 with Starlight Xpress Trius SX-9C cooled cam behind a Questar .5X focal reducer, at approximately f/9. 48X5 minute exposures from 4 nights stacked and processed in PixInsight; lightly finished with GIMP. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.