M77

M77 in Cetus, is a prototypical 'active galaxy', of the type called Seyfert galaxies, and is very large, being about 170,000 light years across its arms. The central portion of the galaxy is unusually bright, and even at its distance of 60 million light years, radiates energy so strongly that it is seen at magnitude 9 in smaller telescopes. But the spiral arms are quite faint and thus require considerable magnification to become visible. The central object is believed to be a 10 million solar mass black hole, surrounded by an orbiting accretion disk about 5 light years in diameter, which emits enormous amounts of radio energy, typical of a quasar.

Taken November 23, 2009, with the ST-8 camera on the C-14 operating at F:7. Exposure is 10 minutes. I hope to re-shoot this object some day with more magnification and a much longer exposure.