Thursday, April 26, 2007

M104, The Sombrero Galaxy


Nothing wrong with this one that better focus, autoguiding, and about a 4-times longer exposure wouldn't cure. Oh, and shooting when it's not a quarter moon would probably help, too.

Info from Starry Night Pro:
Distance from observer: 50.000 Mly
Apparent magnitude: 9.50
Angular size: 12 arcminutes
Description: M104 is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy with an unusually large central bulge. It is an outlying member of the Virgo Cluster. This galaxy is known as the Sombrero Galaxy due to its large circular glow and the dark lane which bisects the galaxy into two unequal halves. A small telescope can show the galaxy’s bright bulge with pointed ends and the dark lane. M104 was not in Messier’s published catalog, but was added in 1921 when it was noticed that Messier’s notes indicated that he knew of this object. Objects M105-110 were subsequently added for the same reason.

10" LX200 @ f/6.3, 30 x 120 sec, EOS 350 D @ 1600 ISO

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice pic Jeff. Is the dark lane dust that is in front of the galaxy?

robertg