M100 Spiral Galaxy

Click on the image to view full size! Image Acquisition Details: 77x 120s Luminance + 7x 120s Red + 15x 120s Green + 15x 120s Blue subs: total 3.8 hrs.

Equipment:

• Explore Scientific ED127CF APO telescope

• Optalong L-Pro Filter

• ZWO ASI 183 MM Pro Camera @ -10 c

• ZWO L, R, G and B filters

• Skywatcher EQ6-R mount

• Guided using ASIair Pro.

About M100

M100 is one of the largest and brightest galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster and can be found in the constellation of Coma Berenices. It is an intermediate spiral galaxy which lies about 55 million light years from earth. It has a diameter of 107,000 light years making it slightly larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. It was one of the first spiral galaxies to be discovered in the year 1781 by Pierre Méchain.

The main image at the top includes multiple other galaxies in the same image, some being more obvious than others. Can you count how many? There is an image at the bottom highlighting them all.

There are two smaller dwarf galaxies that orbit around M100, these are NGC 4323 and NGC 4328. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Where in the sky is it?

M100 is located in the in the middle of three constellations but officially lies within the constellation of Coma Berenices.

So how many galaxies did you see?

There are 10 different galaxies that are visible in the main image.