M108 Surfboard Barred Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

Messier 108 (also known as NGC 3556, nicknamed the Surfboard Galaxy) is a barred spiral galaxy about 46 million light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation Ursa Major. From the Earth, this galaxy is seen almost edge-on.

 

The galaxy contains about 400 billion stars and an estimated population of 290 globular clusters. With a radius of 55,000 light years it is about the same size as the Milky Way.

 

This image was obtained from integrating over 80 two-minute exposures through 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 86 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