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Wikipedia says that
Messier 74
(also known as
NGC 628
or Phantom Galaxy)
is a large spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation
Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth.
The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is
therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design
spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it
the most difficult Messier object (phantom !) for amateur astronomers to
observe.
For me this is probably the
nicest autumn galaxy.. but
still I had only an old and rather poor M74 picture
and it came time to make it better.
And the result is, I think, already rather
satisfactory. The picture above
is a crop in full (~100% ) resolution, with nice arc of
the background galaxies on the left side.
As possible matter of interest I marked with arrows under
M74 at least two adjacent quasars. The more distent (here
the brighter one) has redshift z=2.43 and its light travel
time to Earth was about 11 billion light-years.
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Optics:
NoName Newton 192/800
+GPU c.c.
Camera:
Atik One6
Filters:
LRGB Baader
Mount:
SW AZEQ-6
Guider:
Lacerta MGEN
Exposure:
12x5
min. (L)
8x5 min. (R, G, B each), bin 2x2
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop
21.
and 25..9. 2023
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