M106 is a grand spiral galaxy located 25 million light-years away toward the constellation of Canes Venatici. The galaxy, which is easily seen with binoculars or a modest telescope, is about 30° inclined from our vantage point.

This image was acquired at the Cosmic Campground (near Alma, NM) using my Stellarview 115mm triplet and an Atik 460 CCD. This was my first ever LRGBHa CCD image! The camera was cooler to -10C; 10-minute subs were acquired over the course of two nights.

Images were aligned and stacked using Nebulosity. Nebulosity was also used to synthesize the image from the LRGB stacks. The Ha data was added using Photoshop. The bright galaxy to the upper left is NGC 4217 (mag 12.1). The smaller bright galaxy just above M106 is NGC 4248 (mag 13.2). Several other fainter galaxies are also visible in the image.

The field of view used to acquire the image is shown on the right. Clicking the image above will open up a larger (and rotated) version of image.

Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)