Messier87_Insert_version4b.jpg

The monstrous galaxy M87, home of several trillion stars is located 54 million light-years away, made history when the first image of a black hole was captured that lies at its center.

A team of more than 200 astronomers in 20 different countries used eight telescopes, in unison to form what is called the Event Horizon Telescope Array, which also included the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (a 66-telescope array in Chile).

The insert of the black hole was added as an example and is not part of the actual image taken.

The image was captured using 200 sub-frames at 30 second exposures each, with a camera gain of 220. Some light pollution is still present in the additional image. The camera temperature was set at -19.5C.

The telescopic instrument used, Explore Scientific ED 165 mm APO refractor, and 0.65x focal reducer & flattener. There are multiple other galaxies present, just a few mentioned in the image taken.

This is like looking deep into space. Love it! 

Note: On the Siamese twins, there is an error. The designation should read, from left to right: NGC 4568 and NGC 4567.