m108

M108 is a spiral galaxy 46 million light years distant in Ursa Major. It is inclined at 75 degrees from the viewers perspective, so the spiral structure is hidden from view.  Visually it appears as a relatively small object (11.1’ x 4.6’) with an apparent magnitude of 10.7. Its core is estimated to contain a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of 24 million solar masses.  I was pleased to capture quite a bit of detail on the galaxy including the Ha emission areas. The background also contains many small, more distant, galaxies. The LRGB image below was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 14.5 hours integration time.