M77 (Cetus A, NGC 1068) in Cetus

M77 (Cetus A, NGC 1068) is the pro­to­type of pec­u­lar class of extragalactic objects known as Sey­fert galax­ies, hav­ing very act­ive nuc­lei and show­ing strong emis­sion lines sim­il­ar to quas­ars.
The galaxy is shin­ing at 8.9mag at a real dis­tance of about 50 mil­lion lightyears. The dia­met­er of the bright part is about 120’000 light years, while the faint exten­sions are going to nearly 170’000 lightyears, one of the biggest objects in Charles Messi­er­’s catalog.

The galaxy in the upper left corner is NGC 1072 with a visu­al bright­ness of 13.4 mag.

[descrip­tion from O’Meara and SEDS]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 14.5″ f/​8
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
Apo­gee U16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGB 440:140:160:140 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart M77 (Cetus A, NGC 1068) in Cetus

M77 Galaxy Sky Chart Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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