16 million light years away in Canes Venatici (the hunting dogs), the Cat’s Eye Galaxy gazes upon us, glowing with the light of nearly 40 billion stars and immense fields of weakly ionized gas. When English astronomer William Herschel encountered the Cat’s Eye in 1787, he noted the brilliant nucleus connected to a faint outer halo by extending tendrils of dark nebulosity, observations which have proven accurate and astute to this day. While the elliptical galactic nucleus appears smaller than the faint outer ring, that inner oval bears 77% of the galaxy’s mass and is responsible for 90% of stellar formation, physically dwarfing the outer halo.
Acquisition Date: June 2-4, 2024
Acquisition Site: Kaibab Lodge, AZ
Equipment: Takahashi TOA-130NFB, ASI2600MC, Astro-Physics 1200GTO, Astrodon MOAG
Subframes: 182 x 180s
Software: PixInsight, Apple Photos, Sequence Generator Pro, PHD2, APCC, Starry Night, SharpCap