Digital Image – Messier 94 in Canes Venatici

 

This is Messier 94, a spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici.

Messier 94 (M94), also known as Cat’s Eye Galaxy or Croc’s Eye Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici.

The Cat’s Eye Galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 8.99 and lies at a distance of 16 million light years from Earth. It has the designation NGC 4736 in the New General Catalogue.

Messier 94 occupies an area of 11.2 by 9.1 arc minutes of apparent sky, which corresponds to a linear extension of 50,000 light years. The galaxy can be spotted with binoculars under exceptionally good conditions, but only appears as a small, dim patch of light. Even small telescopes will reveal the object as a galaxy.

Click on the image to view a larger version.

Image Info

Canon 60D with an Astronomik CLS LPR filter. 18 frames of 120 seconds each, all at ISO 1600, gives a total exposure of only 36 minutes. The sky became pretty soft toward the end of the imaging run, which limited the number of exposures. Captured and Stacked in Nebulosity, Processed in StarTools, and finished in Aperture.

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