Spaceimages - Astrofotografie by Jens Zippel

Messier 106 or NGC 4258 is a spiral galaxy with the apparent brightness of 8.3 mag in the constellation Canes Venatici. With a distance of about 24 million light years, the galaxy lies in the vicinity of several galaxy groups. M106 has a diameter of about 135,000 light years.

Please click on the image for a bigger view.

Object:	M106
Date of exposures:	20.03.2020, 21.03.2020, 11.02.2022, 25.02.2022, 26.02.2022, 27.02.2022
Distance:	24 Mio. Lightyears
Exposures:	Lum: 375x 180 Sec., RGB: 334 x 180 Sec., Ha: 9 x 300 Sec. Sum: 35,5 Std.
Telescope:	10'', F4 Newton
Focal length:	1000 mm
Filter:	Astrodon LRGB, E-Series, H-Alpha, 5nm
Camera:	ASI 1600 MMC Pro
Guiding:	Off Axis Guider, Lodestar
Mount:	EQ8

The core of the galaxy is active and known as a radio source since the 1950s. In 1995, Brent Tully et al. described that the center is launching a jet, which should be related to the massive central object of this galaxy, discovered the same year. This central object is probably a black hole of almost 40 million solar masses. The two spiral arms are characterized by large quantities of young, massive stars that glow in a bluish light. The galaxy currently runs through a so-called "starburst", in which the rate of star formation is greatly increased. M106 was discovered in July 1781 by Pierre Méchain.

Older version from 2017:

Galaxy M106