M77-Messier 77-NGC 1068

“The Sea Monsters Monster”  

This beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus “the sea monster” houses this monster of a galaxy M77, also known as NGC 1068 its one of the closest and most energetic galaxies to us. This makes it one of the most spectacular galaxies in the universe. We added 2017 data and 2024 data as well as new data from 2024 from Alex Zaytsev in SHO to the mix. Wow, it looks quite amazing. We had some great seeing for the luminance on this, deconvolved down to .7asp Taken here in LRGB-Ha-O3-S2 the SHO and blue (yes again) channels were added after the LRGB image was constructed, it certainly paid off and gave it a special look.

Face-on spiral galaxy M77 lies a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatic constellation Cetus. Also known as NGC 1068, its very bright core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of super massive black holes in active galaxies. While M77 is also seen at x-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, and radio wavelengths, this visible light image highlights another remarkable aspect of the galaxy. In the picture it shows outer faint details, following spiral arms and structures that reach far beyond the galaxy's brighter central regions. Including the fainter outskirts, the galaxy's diameter is well over 100 thousand light-years at M77's estimated distance, making it larger than our own spiral Milky Way.

PlaneWave CDK24, L600,Moravian C5 Lum 60x600, Red 60x300, Green 60x300, Blue 60x300, Ha 44x600 Taken from 11-23 to 11-29-2024

PlaneWave CDK24, L600, STX-16803 Lum24x900, Lum 24x300(core), Red 24x900, Green 24x900, Blue 24x900 Taken from 11-17 to 12-4-2017

20”F3.8 Telescope 3, FlI-16803 from Chilescope 15Hours 40min SHO. From Alex Zaytsev.

A total of 76 hours.

SWOS- Mazlin, Parker, Forman, Zaytsev, Hanson

Image Processing: Mark Hanson

Enjoy SWOS Group

Below are older versions from SWO in New Mexico