M106 Region in Canes Venatici

M106 is a nice object and Canes Vanatici is a great constellation for galaxies.  The beautiful nature of CCD photography is that you when you take a wide-field picture of the excellent M106 you are very likely to capture some of the other, smaller galactic neighbors.  M106 is a nice, bright, tightly wound spiral galaxy that rests just underneath the Big Dipper.  If you look close, you'll find 6 or 7 other galaxies in this picture.  The edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4217 is especially nice.

To see a high resolution of M106 itself, click <here>.  

Location:  Ballauer Observatory in Azle, Texas
Seeing: 6/10 (1.5 FWHM)
Transparency: 4/10
Date and Time: March 17, 2003 @  3:00AM
Equipment: Tak FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Takahashi NJP mount
Camera: SBIG ST-10xme with CFW-8a filter wheel
Exposure Information: RGB image, 40:40:40 minutes (10 minute subexposures)
Processing Information:  Dark frame calibration, deblooming, gradient removal, registration and Sigma Combine in MaxIm 3.0.  Digital development in Images Plus.  Levels, Curves, color balance, and cropping in Photoshop CS.  

Exposure Notes: Special thanks to Fred Koch for the loan of the NJP mount and ST-10xme camera.  This is a "first light" shot taken with that mount.

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