Messier 100 is a “Grand Design” barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices and belongs to the Virgo Cluster. This galaxy was the first object to be imaged by the Hubble Telescope when it was launched and it terrified the astronomers when they saw it and understood that the telescope had an important aberration flaw. This galaxy is 55 million light years away from us and it is one of the dimmest objects of the Messier catalog, due to its very low surface brightness. This image shows numerous galaxies, two of them (NGC 4322 and NGC 4328, at the lower left of M100) are satellites of M100. The most conspicuous galaxy close to the right border is NGC 4312, a spiral galaxy containing an intermediate mass black hole in its center.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): Messier 100. M100. NGC 4321
Type: Barred Spiral galaxy
RA: 12h 22m 55s
Dec: +15º 49’ 21”
Constellation: Coma Berenices
Size (arcmin): 7.5×6.5 arcmin
Magnitude: +10.1
Distance: 55 million ly
Image
Date: 2021-05-13 to 2021-05-28
Location: Curiosity2 Observatory, New Mexico Skies, Mayhill, NM, USA
Size (arcmin): 31×27 arcmin
Telescope: 24” (61 cm) f/6.5 Reflector
Camera: FLI PL16803 (4096x4096pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 9 hours (L: 3 h; RGB 6 h)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2021