Messier 102 with faint halo

[wimvb]

M102, or ngc 5866, is a lenticular (= in between a spiral and elliptical) galaxy in Draco. It is seen edge on and covers about 4.5 x 2 arcminutes of the sky. Its distance from earth is about 50 MLy.

M102 has very faint outer regions that were captured in this image. Unfortunately, the delicate structure of the dark central dustlane wasn't resolved, despite the high resolution.

Data from the Liverpool Telescope on La Palma (2 m mirror, resolution 0.3 " per pixel).

Exposures:

Blue: 6 x 60 seconds Bessell-B

Green: 6 x 60 seconds Bessell-V

Red: 6 x 60 seconds SDSS-r

Instrument: IO:O (optical camera), 15 micrometer pixel size, 4000 x 4000 pixels (here binned 2 x 2)

Total integration time: 18 minutes (the large aperture helps)

Total processing time: much longer. 

(click on image to enlarge)