M106 and some of its neighbours...

[Sterrenland]

Last night's offering was M106 in Canes Venatici.

 

Despite the clear sky there was a bit of a wind gusting while I was out, so the final image isn't as good as it could have been. Still, I managed just shy of 3 hours on it (180 second lights). This could do with a bit more aperture...it's on my 'when I get a bigger scope' reshoot-list.

 

Having said that there are loads of other galaxies to spot in the same image. I particularly like the edge-on one to the right and slightly down of M106 (NGC4217).I have also just managed to capture possibly the farthest object yet with my 80mm scope. Ringed in yellow in the second image is PGC2299122. Someone with a VERY long tape measure has calculated this galaxy to be about 3.8 BILLION light years away from my empty gin glass....which is coming up for a third of the age of the universe.

 

The pictures aren't perfect, but they're full of wonder.