M89 Region in Virgo

M89 (Messi­er 89, also known as NGC 4552) is an ellipt­ic­al galaxy in the con­stel­la­tion Virgo. It was dis­covered by Charles Messi­er on March 18, 1781. M89 is a mem­ber of the Virgo Cluster of galax­ies and can be found upper right of the cen­ter of this image.

The galaxy fea­tures a sur­round­ing struc­ture of gas and dust, extend­ing up to 150,000 light-years and jets of heated particles up to two-thirds of that. This indic­ates that it may have once been an act­ive quas­ar or radio galaxy. M89 has an extens­ive and com­plex sys­tem of sur­round­ing shells and plumes, indic­at­ing that has seen one or sev­er­al not­able mergers.

Beside of M89, five addi­tion­al Messi­er galax­ies can be found in this wide­field image: M58, M59, M60, M87 and M90 (see skychart below). The image cov­ers a field of 3.5° x 2.5° just beside of the Markari­an’s Chain.

[descrip­tion from wikipedia]

Details

Tele­scope:
Taka­hashi FSQ-106EDX III
Mount:
ASA DDM85
Cam­era:
QHY600M-PH
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
LRGB 380:170:150:150 min.
Loc­a­tion:
ROSA Remote Obser­vat­or­ies South­ern Alps
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart M89 Region in Virgo

M89 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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