M91

Messier 91, at magnitude 10.2, is the faintest object in Messier's catalog. It is a nice barred spiral galaxy, and a member of the Virgo Cluster. Like a number of other cluster members, it is situated in the southern part of the constellation Coma Berenices. Lying at about 52 million light years, it is one of the most difficult Messier objects for amateur observation. In my image below, I have allowed some amount of background noise to appear in order to brighten the spiral arms which are extremely faint.

Image taken through high thin clouds on Feb. 26, 2012, with the C-14 operating at F:3.5 and the ST-8 camera binned 2 X 2. Exposure is 7 1/2 minutes.