M104 - Sombraro Galaxy

M104 - Sombraro Galaxy

This galaxy has a dense dust lane that has the appearance of the rim of a sombraro hat.  I took the picture in January and it is quite low in the southern sky.  There is a faint halo surrounding the galaxy.  Astronomers speculate that there is a massive black hole, a billion times the mass of our sun, giving off intense x-ray radiation.

Date:  01-30-03

Telescope: RC14.5 (.75x reducer)        Camera:ST8XE                

Exposure Time: 50 minutes of 2x2 bin

Processing: Maxim,reduced, DDP, Adobe combined