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The Cat's Eye Galaxy

Messier 94, also known as Cat's Eye Galaxy and Croc's Eye Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in constellation Canes Venatici, located at 16 million light years from Earth. It has two ring, an inner one with very active star formation (as it can be seen by the blue ring near the center) and an outer ring, fainter but also with some structure, which need extra integration time to reveal.

 

This galaxy has a quite large dynamic range between the inner and outer ring making it a bit more complex to process but I believe I managed to balance the ability to see the structures in both ring. Surely a bit flatter than I would like but one must compromise.

 

This is my second attempt on this galaxy. However, this time it was shot from a Bortle 3 location instead of my home's Bortle 7-8 and difference is striking. Really happy on how this last one came up.

 

Hope you enjoy.

 

Shot at Trevinca, ES on May. 28, May.30 and May.31 2024

 

Technical details as follows:

R: 40 x 180''

G: 40 x 180''

B: 40 x 180''

L: 199 x 120''

Total Integration: 12h38

 

SW EQ6-R Pro | TS Optics Triplet APO 800/115 | TS Optics TSFLAT2 0.79x | QHYCCD 268M | Optolong LRGB | RBFocus Gaius-S | RBFocus Myrrdin 2.3

 

Acquisition: N.I.N.A. | Processing: Pixinsight

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Uploaded on June 15, 2024