Messier 74

(also known as NGC 628) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is at a distance of 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 for amateur astronomers to observe. However, the relatively large angular size of the galaxy and the galaxy's face-on orientation make it an ideal object for professional astronomers who want to study spiral arm structure and spiral density waves. It is estimated that M74 is home to about 100 billion stars.

Imaged in LRGB on a PlaneWave CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.

Image Processing: Mark Hanson

Data and Preprocessing: Mike Selby

Enjoy, Mark

Below Image Taken December 2014 from DGRO Rancho Hidalgo Animas, New Mexico  Luminance 350
14.5" RCOS F8, Apogee U16M High Cooling for Luminance.

Color Taken from SWO in October 2017 Using 17" Planewave and SBIG 16803.

Red 180, Green 180, Blue 180
Calibrated,combined in CCD Stack all other processing done using PS5.