Saturday, April 10, 2010

M94 - The Eye in the Sky

I shot this picture of Messier 94 with my Canon DSLR and my big 9 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain scope. This galaxy is considered an active galaxy, and has a very violent nucleus. It is theorized to hold a super-massive black hole. It is very dusty, and the collapse of the dust into the nucleus is thought to be producing an outburst of star formation, called a "Starburst". The faint glowing cloud surrounding it is a very dim halo of stars, offset from the central arms and "starburst" ring. The whole effect makes it appear similar to an "eye" floating in space.

This image is a compilation of nearly 2 hours worth of images.

1 comment:

Kilauea Poetry said...

Fascinating, almost..the opposite of what I shoot. Wonderful photos!