Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
35x180sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Celestron 9.25 reduced 0.63

70+% Crop

Cropped a little tight for quality, but it really is a nothing kind of galaxy and I had to show at least some detail.

M108 (NGC 3556) is a nearly edge on galaxy that appears to have no bulge and no pronounced core at all, it is just a detail-rich mottled disk with heavy obscuration along the major axis. About it's only claim to fame is that is makes part of a photogenic pair with planetary nebula M97 (Owl Nebula) in wide field images from small telescopes.

There's little evidence for a well-defined spiral pattern in this Sc galaxy, which is receding at 772 km/sec. It is about 45 million light years distant, and a member of the Ursa Major cloud, a loose agglomeration of galaxies.

The type II supernova 1969B occurred in M108 and reached mag 13.9 on Jan 23, 1969.

March 4, 2009