M100 — Blowdryer Galaxy
Galaxy in Coma Berenices
About
A grand-design spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, about 55 million light-years away, and one of the largest and brightest members of the Virgo Cluster. Its strongest star formation sits in a ring around the centre. Seven supernovae have been identified in it.
Imaging tips
- Spans a third to half of the frame at 3,460–5,770 mm on APS-C, so it calls for a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- At 22 mag/arcsec² the arms are faint: one La Palma LRGB image reached about 3 hours with 10-minute luminance subs, another used 17 × 10 min on a modified DSLR.
- Small satellites NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 and the galaxy IC 783 show up in the same field in published frames.
- Best around March and April.
Facts
- Size
- 7′ × 6′
- Magnitude
- 9.3
- Coordinates
- RA 12h 22.9m, Dec +15° 49′
- Framing, APS-C
- 3460–5770 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Mar, Apr
- Peak altitude
- 56° from 50°N, 71° from 35°N