M106 - Galaxy in Canes Venatici
A galaxy of somewhat peculiar nature, clearly showing areas of recent and ongoing starbirth. NGC 4248 is visible on the right.


  • RA:12:19
  • Dec: 47:18
  • Size: 17.4x6.6'
  • Magnitude: 8.3
  • Distance: 25 Mly
  • Constellation: Canes Venatici
  • Millennium Star Atlas: Vol. II, p. 591-2
  • Scope: 12.5" Ritchey-Chretien at f/9
  • Autoguider: ST-4 in average mode
  • Sky conditions: Cold, excellent seeing initially
  • Film: FLI DM CCD camera
  • Exposure: 15x60 seconds L, 5x240 seconds R,G,B
  • Date: 5-21-02

A night of interesting twists. The moon was up and past the first quarter, forcing me away from my primary target of M94. I thought M106 was far enough away but the moon still put a pretty severe light pollution gradient across the luminance image, causing me to lose some of the faint detail. The real hair-puller was that the seeing was as good that night as I've ever seen it but as soon as I pulled away from the zenith, it deteriorated dramatically. And since it took a moderate amount of time to get setup and get the autoguider into operation, I took a hit there as well on the resolution.


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