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Photographer:

[email protected]

Location of Photo:

Nunnelly and Spencer/Pikeville, TN, USA

Date/Time of photo:

April 26 and May 1 & 2, 2014

Equipment:

Telescope: Celestron 8" EdgeHD SCT @ f/10 Accessories: Dew control by Dew Buster; Aurora flat panel Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2 Camera: QSI583wsg CCD @ -10.0C Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar Filters: Astrodon Tru-Balance LRGB Exposure: 7 & 1/2 hours total: Lum (1x1) = 18 x 900sec (4 & 1/2 hours); RGB (2x2)= 6 x 600sec each (3 hours) Acquisition: ImagesPlus Camera Control 5.0 Processing: PixInsight 1.8

Description:

Located approximately 55 million light-years away, in the southern part of the constellation Coma Berenices, is Messier 100, a nice example of a grand design spiral galaxy. A member of the Virgo cluster, M100 is one of the largest and brightest of the group, with a diameter of 107,000 light-years. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain on March 15, 1781 and added to Charles Messier's catalogue of nebula and star clusters after his observation of it on April 13, 1781. One of the first spiral galaxies to be discovered, M100 was listed as 1 of 4 spiral nebulae by Lord William Parsons of Rosse in 1850. There are two satellite galaxies associated with M100 – NGC 4323, connected by a bridge of luminous matter (around the 8 o'clock position right next to the galaxy in this image), and NGC 4328 (at the 6 o'clock position in this image). Other designations: NGC 4321

Website:

http://cntastro.smugmug.com

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