NGC4244 in LHaRGB (Canes Venatici) , May 2023
Planewave CDK12.5" telecope and A-P 1100GTO AE mount
ASI6200MM Camera, Antlia Pro BB & 3nm Ha Filters
Lum (47 x 200s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain 100)
RGB (3 x 21 x 240s exposures, Bin 2x2 Gain 100)
Ha (11 x 600s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain200)
Total Integration Time = 8.6 hours
I wanted to see what I structure I could see in the "loosely" spiral galaxy, NGC4244, given that it is almost exactly edge on. There are several active star forming regions from hydrogen emissions (red) at what appears as a star in its core.
In the case of NGC4244, this is actually a very dense cluster of stars, known as a nuclear star cluster (NSC) at its centre of mass. Smaller, fainter galaxies tend to have NSC and not supermassive black holes at its nucleus or core. The opposite is true for much larger/massive galaxies where NSCs are most often absent. The Milky Way contains both an NSC and a supermassive black hole of roughly the same total mass.
The Silver Needle Galaxy is the member of the M94 group and is about 13 million lys away.