M109 Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy in Ursa Major

M109, also known as the Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy (NGC 3992), is a barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, which lies approximately 83 million light years away, making it the most distant object in the Messier catalogue.

 

About half of all spiral galaxies are thought to be barred, including our own Milky Way. Barred spiral galaxies have a central bar-shaped structure surrounded by spiral arms. The central bar is a region of enhanced star formation, where new stars are born.

 

The diameter of M109 Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy (NGC 3992) is about 120,000 to 130,000 light-years, similar in size, to the Milky Way galaxy.

 

M109 earned its nickname "Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy" due to its appearance resembling a vacuum cleaner. (That's what 'they' say, whoever they are).

 

I got this image from about 4 hours observation using 2-minute exposures with my Celestron C11 telescope.

 

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Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 106 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

Done