The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier 104 or NGC 4594 ) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +9.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.
Image Data: Sombrero Galaxy (M104)
Lens/Scope: William Optics Megrez 102 S.V. with WO Type II 0.8x FF/FR
Focal Length: 571.2mm
F/Stop: f/5.6
Exposure: Stack of 125 100-second exposures (3:28 hours total exposure)
Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GoTo (CdC & EQMOD Control)
Guiding: None
Camera: Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i) Baader Mod @ Astronomiser
Mode: Raw
ISO: 800
White Balance: Custom, set on sky background
In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off
Filter: Hutech IDAS LPS
Date: May 20, 2011
Start Time: 22:30
Location: Beja, Portugal
Calibration: 50 Darks. 50 Flats. 50 Dark Flats.
Processing: Calibrated, aligned and stacked in DSS. Levels, curves, cropped, resampled in Photoshop. GradientXTerminator. Carboni Tools.
