M106 - Galaxy in Canes Venatici

Object data: M106 (NGC 4258) is an interesting Sb spiral galaxy located about 25 million light years distant in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It has a visual magnitude of 8.4, making it easy to spot in small telescopes or even binoculars. In the north west corner of this image can be seen an edge-on magnitude 13 galaxy, NGC 4248. M106 was not part of Messier's original catalogue, having been discovered by Messier's colleague, P. Mechain and added to the Messier catalogue by HS Hogg in 1947. Date: 09/02/05 Location: Southern France Conditions: Calm, no dew, transparency=9, seeing=8 Optics: Ritchey-Chretien 12.5" f/9 (from RCOS) Mount: AP 900 GTO on Portable Pier Camera: SBIG ST-8E / CFW-8 Guiding: Integral ST-8E autoguider Exposure: LRGB: Luminance: 8x15 minutes; RGB: 15:15:30 minutes binned 2x2 Processing: Image acquisition and initial processing was done using Maxim DL, subsequent processing was done using RegiStar and Photoshop. The processing method has been recently updated based on Russell Croman's resources page and advice from Adam Block for which I am indebted. Notes: This is my first CCD attempt at M106 and replaces an earlier film image taken in 2000.