Galaxies
Messier 91 in Coma Berenices
This barred spiral galaxy is around 63 million lightyears distant and 100,000 lightyears in diameter, so similar in size to our own galaxy. M91 is moving at about 700km/sec through the Virgo supercluster of galaxies, towards our Milky Way galaxy. Ram pressure exerted by the cluster medium has stripped M91 of much of its free hydrogen, so it has a very low rate of star formation for a galaxy of its type.
This image is the result of just over 5h of data capture, over 2 evenings in April and May 2021.
ZWO ASI071MC Pro colour camera, through a Teleskop-Service 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien reflector, using an Astronomik UV/IR filter.
Date: 06/05/2021
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
Photographer: Graham Wilcock
