M74 – Spiral Galaxy

M74 (NGC628) is a face-on spiral galaxy about 32 million light years away in the constellation Pisces. It measures about 97,000 light years across, and contains an estimated 40 billion stars. Millions of stars are forming in the hot bluish knots lighting up its spiral arms.

M74 Spiral Galaxy
Exposure
Luminance   5.7 hours (68 x 5 min.) unbinned @ -15°C
Red   1 hour (12 x 5 min.), binned 2x2 @ -15°C
Green   1 hour (12 x 5 min.), binned 2x2 @ -15°C
Blue   1 hour (12 x 5 min.), binned 2x2 @ -15°C
Processing Master dark frames 1x1 lum (35 x 5 min.) and 2x2 RGB (24 x 5 min.), sigma-reject combined
Dark and flat frame reduction in CCDSoft
Sigma-reject combined
Processing and LRGB-combined in Photoshop CS
Date and Location October 2 & 3, 2005
Montpelier, Virginia, USA
Equipment
 Celestron 9¼" at f/5.6 on a Celestron CGE equatorial mount
SBIG ST-8XM camera
Optec IFW filter wheel with Astrodon TruBalance filters
Optec TCF-S focuser
Optec Pyxis camera rotator
Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.11
Guide scope: 60mm f/5 refractor and ST-402 camera

Updated May 23, 2023